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News Release

Submission Window Open Through May 1 For The Waterston Desert Writing Prize (Photo) - 04/21/26

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Tuesday, April 21, 2026

 

BEND, OR — The clock is ticking for desert-inspired nonfiction writers! The High Desert Museum is calling for entries for the 12th annual Waterston Desert Writing Prize. Writers dedicated to exploring the ecological and cultural narratives of arid landscapes have until May 1, 2026, at 11:59 pm to submit their proposals for a chance at the $3,000 award and a creative writing residency at PLAYA in Summer Lake, Oregon.

 

This prestigious award, a program of the High Desert Museum, celebrates proposals for outstanding literary nonfiction dedicated to the literal and figurative exploration of desert landscapes. This year’s winner will also be recognized with a reception and reading at the Museum in Bend, Oregon, on September 17, 2026. Tickets are available now at highdesertmuseum.org/waterston-ceremony-2026.

 

“Now in its 12th year, the Waterston Desert Writing Prize continues to elevate stories that honor the complexity of arid landscapes,” said Museum Executive Director Dana Whitelaw, Ph.D. “We are eager to discover new, eloquent voices that challenge and expand our understanding of these vital ecosystems.”

 

Charles Hood, winner of the Obsidian Award in 2025 and a five-time finalist for the Waterston Desert Writing Prize, will serve as the 2026 guest judge. A poet and essayist with more than a dozen books to his name, Hood has been a factory worker, a ski instructor, and a birding guide in Africa. His recent books include Nocturnalia, an appreciation of nature after dark, and the essay collection A Salad Only the Devil Would Eat: The Joys of Ugly Nature, which was named the Nonfiction Book of the Year by Foreword book review. A lover of wildlife and travel, Hood has been to all 50 states and about 70 countries – from the high Arctic to the South Pole and from Tibet to West Africa to the Amazon. He has been a guest lecturer at Cambridge University and the Getty Art Museum.

 

The Prize was established in 2014, inspired by author and Oregon Poet Laureate Ellen Waterston’s love of the High Desert — a region that has been her muse for more than 50 years. The Waterston Desert Writing Prize celebrates writers whose nonfiction book proposal reflects a similar connection to a desert anywhere in the world.

 

“The Waterston Desert Writing Prize serves as a catalyst for discovery, the writers’ and, ultimately, the readers’,” said Waterston. “It brings to the fore new perspectives on everything from the ‘desertification’ of our oceans to the ingenuity of desert flora and fauna to the human narratives that are inscribed across these landscapes. Most of all, it celebrates the wisdom and generosity of deserts ready to teach what we need to know if we’d but listen.”

 

Emerging, mid-career and established nonfiction writers who illustrate artistic excellence, sensitivity to place and desert literacy with the desert as both subject and setting are invited to apply. The award supports literary nonfiction writers who are completing, proposing or considering the creation of a book-length manuscript. It is recommended that the writing sample submitted is part of the proposed project or closely represents it in content and style.

 

Past winners of the Prize include Heather Quinn (2025), Leath Tonino (2024), Anna Welch (2023) and Caroline Tracey (2022). A nonfiction writer and photographer, Quinn’s submission This is How You Disappear proposed a book-length essay blending personal narrative, reportage and historical research to explore trauma, ecological collapse and memory in the California desert, particularly around the Salton Sea. They were joined by keynote speaker Dan Flores, Ph.D., and guest judge Beth Piatote, Ph.D.

 

To learn more about the Waterston Desert Writing Prize and how to submit an entry, visit highdesertmuseum.org/waterston-prize.

 

 

ABOUT THE MUSEUM: 

The HIGH DESERT MUSEUM opened in Bend, Oregon in 1982. It brings together wildlife, cultures, art, history and the natural world to convey the wonder of North America’s High Desert. The Museum is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, is a Smithsonian Affiliate, was the 2025 recipient of the Autry Public History Prize from the Western History Association and was a 2021 recipient of the National Medal for Museum and Library Service. To learn more, visit highdesertmuseum.org and follow us on TikTok, Facebook and Instagram. 

 

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Attached Media Files: Charles Hood is the guest judge for the 2026 Waterston Desert Writing Prize, a program of the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon. Photo courtesy Charles Hood., Now in its 12th year, the Waterston Desert Writing Prize celebrates writers whose nonfiction book proposal reflects a similar connection to a desert anywhere in the world. The Prize is a program of the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon. Photo by High Desert Museum, Waterston Desert Writing Prize logo,

Submission Window Open Through May 1 For The Waterston Desert Writing Prize (Photo) - 04/21/26

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Tuesday, April 21, 2026

 

BEND, OR — The clock is ticking for desert-inspired nonfiction writers! The High Desert Museum is calling for entries for the 12th annual Waterston Desert Writing Prize. Writers dedicated to exploring the ecological and cultural narratives of arid landscapes have until May 1, 2026, at 11:59 pm to submit their proposals for a chance at the $3,000 award and a creative writing residency at PLAYA in Summer Lake, Oregon.

 

This prestigious award, a program of the High Desert Museum, celebrates proposals for outstanding literary nonfiction dedicated to the literal and figurative exploration of desert landscapes. This year’s winner will also be recognized with a reception and reading at the Museum in Bend, Oregon, on September 17, 2026. Tickets are available now at highdesertmuseum.org/waterston-ceremony-2026.

 

“Now in its 12th year, the Waterston Desert Writing Prize continues to elevate stories that honor the complexity of arid landscapes,” said Museum Executive Director Dana Whitelaw, Ph.D. “We are eager to discover new, eloquent voices that challenge and expand our understanding of these vital ecosystems.”

 

Charles Hood, winner of the Obsidian Award in 2025 and a five-time finalist for the Waterston Desert Writing Prize, will serve as the 2026 guest judge. A poet and essayist with more than a dozen books to his name, Hood has been a factory worker, a ski instructor, and a birding guide in Africa. His recent books include Nocturnalia, an appreciation of nature after dark, and the essay collection A Salad Only the Devil Would Eat: The Joys of Ugly Nature, which was named the Nonfiction Book of the Year by Foreword book review. A lover of wildlife and travel, Hood has been to all 50 states and about 70 countries – from the high Arctic to the South Pole and from Tibet to West Africa to the Amazon. He has been a guest lecturer at Cambridge University and the Getty Art Museum.

 

The Prize was established in 2014, inspired by author and Oregon Poet Laureate Ellen Waterston’s love of the High Desert — a region that has been her muse for more than 50 years. The Waterston Desert Writing Prize celebrates writers whose nonfiction book proposal reflects a similar connection to a desert anywhere in the world.

 

“The Waterston Desert Writing Prize serves as a catalyst for discovery, the writers’ and, ultimately, the readers’,” said Waterston. “It brings to the fore new perspectives on everything from the ‘desertification’ of our oceans to the ingenuity of desert flora and fauna to the human narratives that are inscribed across these landscapes. Most of all, it celebrates the wisdom and generosity of deserts ready to teach what we need to know if we’d but listen.”

 

Emerging, mid-career and established nonfiction writers who illustrate artistic excellence, sensitivity to place and desert literacy with the desert as both subject and setting are invited to apply. The award supports literary nonfiction writers who are completing, proposing or considering the creation of a book-length manuscript. It is recommended that the writing sample submitted is part of the proposed project or closely represents it in content and style.

 

Past winners of the Prize include Heather Quinn (2025), Leath Tonino (2024), Anna Welch (2023) and Caroline Tracey (2022). A nonfiction writer and photographer, Quinn’s submission This is How You Disappear proposed a book-length essay blending personal narrative, reportage and historical research to explore trauma, ecological collapse and memory in the California desert, particularly around the Salton Sea. They were joined by keynote speaker Dan Flores, Ph.D., and guest judge Beth Piatote, Ph.D.

 

To learn more about the Waterston Desert Writing Prize and how to submit an entry, visit highdesertmuseum.org/waterston-prize.

 

 

ABOUT THE MUSEUM: 

The HIGH DESERT MUSEUM opened in Bend, Oregon in 1982. It brings together wildlife, cultures, art, history and the natural world to convey the wonder of North America’s High Desert. The Museum is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, is a Smithsonian Affiliate, was the 2025 recipient of the Autry Public History Prize from the Western History Association and was a 2021 recipient of the National Medal for Museum and Library Service. To learn more, visit highdesertmuseum.org and follow us on TikTok, Facebook and Instagram. 

 

###

Attached Media Files: Charles Hood is the guest judge for the 2026 Waterston Desert Writing Prize, a program of the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon. Photo courtesy Charles Hood., Now in its 12th year, the Waterston Desert Writing Prize celebrates writers whose nonfiction book proposal reflects a similar connection to a desert anywhere in the world. The Prize is a program of the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon. Photo by High Desert Museum, Waterston Desert Writing Prize logo,