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Award-winning author to visit Northland

September 29, 2008

Author and Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award (SONWA) winner Karsten Heuer, will give a public reading and presentation at Northland College on Thursday, October 9. The event will be held in the Sentry Room of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute (SOEI) beginning at 7 p.m. and will be open to the public free of charge. The event is sponsored by SOEI and the Northland College Student Association.

Heuer was the recipient of the 2007 Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award, an international honor given to recognize excellence in nature writing, for his book "Being Caribou," a written chronicle of a year spent following the annual caribou migration across the Canadian tundra with wife and filmmaker Leanne Allison.

Heuer's visit will be preceded by a screening of the film "Being Caribou" on Wednesday, October 8. It will be shown in the Alvord Theatre of the Ponzio Campus Center beginning at 7 p.m. and will be open to the public free of charge. A National Film Board of Canada production, the documentary was written and directed by Allison and Diana Wilson. The film is seventy-two minutes long and features footage shot by Allison during the epic journey undertaken by Heuer and herself.

Inspired by the massive annual migration of caribou in the North American arctic, Heuer and Allison decided to follow the movements of the herd from its winter home to calving grounds in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and back. On cross-country skis and on foot, the couple accompanied the herd for more than 900 miles. The book explores not only the behavior and ecology of the caribou, but also the contentious debate over drilling for oil in ANWR and the environmental degradation it would cause.

Heuer, originally a wildlife biologist, was trained at the University of Calgary. He has worked as a seasonal park warden in Canadian national parks and, in recent years, he has toured as a speaker and best-selling author of award winning books for adults and children. In addition to the SONWA, he has received the Wilburforce Conservation Leadership Award, the Outdoor National Book Award, and the Banff Mountain Book Festival's Grand Prize.

The Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award is given to a published book of literary nonfiction nature writing that captures the spirit of the human relationship with the natural world, and promotes the values that preserve or restore the land for future generations. In 1992, the award was established to both honor the memory and legacy of Sigurd F. Olson and to help support and encourage the work of those contemporary writers who seek to carry on his tradition of quality nature writing. Over the years, the award competition has attracted entries from the best nature writers in the nation with books focusing on topics that help us to connect with the natural world.