# David G. Haskell

David George Haskell is a British and American biologist, writer, and William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies at Sewanee: The University of the South, in Sewanee, Tennessee. He is a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist in General Nonfiction. In addition to scientific papers, he has written essays, poems, op-eds, and the books The Forest Unseen (Viking Press, Penguin Random House 2012), The Songs of Trees (Viking Press, Penguin Random House 2017), Thirteen Ways to Smell a Tree (Hachette 2021), and Sounds Wild and Broken (Viking Press, Penguin Random House 2022).

## Education

Haskell received his B.A. in zoology from the University of Oxford and his Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from Cornell University.

## Work

The Forest Unseen: A Year's Watch in Nature was winner of the 2013 National Academies Communication Award for Best Book, finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction, runner-up for the 2013 PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, winner of the 2012 National Outdoor Book Award for Natural History Literature, and the 2013 Reed Environmental Writing Award. Biologist E. O. Wilson wrote that the book was "…a new genre of nature writing, located between science and poetry". Outside Magazine listed the book among those that "shaped the decade", stating that it "injects much-needed vibrancy into the stuffy world of nature writing". The Forest Unseen has been translated into twelve languages and was winner, in translation, of the 2016 Dapeng Nature Book Award in China.
The Songs of Trees: Stories from Nature's Great Connectors, was published in April 2017 by Viking. It won the 2018 John Burroughs Medal for Distinguished Natural History Writing and the Iris Books Award. Jurors for the Iris Award called The Songs of Trees "a compelling example of poetic science" that "beautifully illustrates the interconnections … of particular trees around the world, weaving together scientific knowledge about them and their relationships to the rest of the natural world including humans." Public Radio International's Science Friday named The Songs of Trees of the Best Science Books of 2017, Maria Popova included the book in Brain Pickings Favorite Science Books of 2017, writing that Haskell is "the rare kind of scientist Rachel Carson was when long ago she pioneered a new cultural aesthetic of poetic prose about science", and Forbes.com named the book one of 10 Best Environment, Climate Science and Conservation Books of 2017. The Songs of Trees has been translated into fourteen languages.
Sounds Wild and Broken (Viking, 2022) was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. It was also a Finalist for the 2023 PEN/ E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award and an Editor's Choice and a Recommended Paperback in the New York Times book review. Cynthia Barnett reviewing in The New York Times, wrote of the book that it "affirms Haskell as a laureate for the earth". The Acoustical Society of America awarded the book its 2021-2 Science Communication Award, Long Form Print.
Thirteen Ways to Smell a Tree was described by Sir Peter Crane, FRS, as "'eclectic, brilliant and beautifully written" and by Kate Humble in The Radio Times Best Books of 2021 as "My favourite book of the year".
Journalist Paul Kvinta's profile of Haskell in Outside Magazine was included in the 2018 anthology Best American Science and Nature Writing, edited by Sam Kean.

## Awards and honors

In 2009 he was named the Carnegie-CASE Professor of the Year in Tennessee. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 2014.
In 2022, Haskell was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society of London. He is also a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies and elected member of the American Ornithological Society.
Awards for Writing:
* Award in Literature. American Academy of Arts and Letters. 2024.
* Finalist, Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. 2023.
* Finalist, PEN America/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. 2023.
* Open Book Award, "Best Book in Translation", Taiwan. 2023.
* Acoustical Society of America's 2023 Science Communication Award, Long-Form Print category.
* Patricia Winn Award for Southern Literature. 2023.
* Winner (Gold and Listener’s Choice), Signal Awards for three categories: “Most Innovative Audio Experience,” “Best Editing,” and “Best Sound Design” (for “When the Earth Started to Sing” published with collaborators in Emergence Magazine). January 2023.
* Iris Book Award for outstanding writing in science, religion, and nature. 2020.
* Ping Shan Natural History Book Award, China. 2020.
* Social Impact Media Awards: Best VR Experience and Jury Prizes for Immersive Impact and Journalistic Achievement. For The Atomic Tree, directed by E. Vaughan-Lee and A. Loften, script D. Haskell, E. Vaughn-Lee, and A Loften. 2020.
* John Burroughs Medal for distinguished natural history writing. 2018.
* China Times Open Book Awards: The Best Book for Life. Taiwan. 2017.
* Dapeng Nature Writing Award. Shenzhen, China. 2016.
* John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. 2014-2015.
* National Academies’ 2013 Communication Award for Best Book. (Given by the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine, with support from the Keck Foundation.)
* Finalist for 2013 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.
* Winner of the 2013 Reed Environmental Writing Award.
* Winner of the 2012 National Outdoor Book Award for Natural History Literature.
* Runner-up for 2013 PEN America/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award.

## Support of conservation and environmental justice organizations

In the Acknowledgments section of The Forest Unseen, Haskell writes that "I will donate at least half my author's proceeds to projects that benefit forest conservation". In the same section of Sounds Wild and Broken, he states "In these pages, I make the case that the acoustic crisis has four main pressing and intersecting dimensions...loss of ecological habitat and attacks on human rights..the nightmare of industrial sound in the oceans...the inequities of noise pollution in cities...failures to listen to and celebrate the storied sensory richness of our world. I will donate at lest half of my net proceeds from this book to organizations that work to heal and reverse these aggressions, fragmentations, and loses." He donated to education and conservation groups all of his proceeds from the sale of the best-selling Eastern Forest Playing Cards with the Art of Play.
Haskell served on advisory boards for the Open Space Institute and as board member and leader of the Shakerag Hollow Conservation Initiative for the South Cumberland Regional Land Trust. He serves on the advisory board of Advisory Board, MAX (Media Art Exploration).