SELC announces 2026 Reed Environmental Writing Award winners and featured speaker

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Feb. 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Today the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) announced Catherine Coleman Flowers and Lindsey Liles as the winners of its 2026 Phillip D. Reed Environmental Writing Award. Their work exemplifies the power of storytelling to capture some of the most important environmental issues facing the South.

The Reed Award celebrates writers who achieve both literary excellence and offer extraordinary insight into the South's natural treasures and environmental challenges. Presented annually, the award recognizes outstanding writing on the Southern environment in two categories: Book and Journalism. The Book category honors work of nonfiction that are not self-published, and the Journalism category honors newspaper, magazine, and online writing published by a recognized institution such as a news organization, university, or nonprofit group. 

An award ceremony will be held in honor of the winners during the Virginia Festival of the Book. This event is free and open to the public. It will start at 5 p.m. on March 20, in the CODE Building, located at 225 West Water Street on the Downtown Mall in Charlottesville, Va. The event will also be streamed for free online.  

Christian Cooper will serve as the keynote speaker for the 2026 Reed Environmental Writing Award ceremony. Christian Cooper is an Emmy Award-winning host and the New York Times bestselling author of "Better Living Through Birding." Known for his work as the host of National Geographic's "Extraordinary Birder with Christian Cooper," he brings his lifelong passion for birding and environmental advocacy to a wide audience. A former president of the Harvard Ornithological Club and current vice president of the New York City Bird Alliance, Cooper champions safe, accessible green spaces and engages underserved communities in the joys of birdwatching.

Register now to attend the ceremony or watch the livestream. The first 400 virtual registrants will receive a copy of Catherine Coleman Flowers's book, "Holy Ground: On Activism, Environmental Justice, and Finding Hope."  https://www.selc.org/reed-award-registration/

Here are additional details for this year's winners:

Book Category

Catherine Coleman Flowers, a two-time recipient of the Reed Environmental Writing Award, is receiving the 2026 Reed Award for "Holy Ground: On Activism, Environmental Justice, and Finding Hope."

In "Holy Ground," Flowers shares an inspiring collection of deeply personal essays, with an urgent message. Drawing from a lifetime of organizing and advocacy, Flowers frames the defining challenges of our time, from climate change to rural poverty, through the lived experiences of the communities most often left behind. Grounded in the history of the South, the essays lay bare how planned disinvestments and systemic neglect continue to deprive people and communities of the basic right to clean air, safe drinking water, and a healthy environment. Flowers weaves together reflections on ancestry, faith, loss, resilience, and responsibility, honoring the trailblazers who paved the way while candidly reckoning with the personal costs of fighting for the common good. With grace, moral clarity, and unwavering hope, "Holy Ground" charts a path toward social and environmental justice, calling readers to take action for their communities and for the planet we share.

Journalism Category

Lindsey Liles receives the 2026 Reed Award for the Garden & Gun feature "Inside the Fight to Save the World's Most Endangered Wolf."

Liles' reporting takes readers inside the ongoing struggle to protect the red wolf, the most endangered wolf species on the planet, whose only wild population remains in a small corner of eastern North Carolina. Through vivid reporting and careful attention to science, policy, and place, the story explores the fragile balance between wildlife conservation, land use, and public will. By centering on the people, ecosystems, and stakes involved, Liles's work underscores the broader implications of species loss and the urgency of preserving the South's natural wonders—and leaves readers with hope for the red wolf's future.

Southern Environmental Law Center

The Southern Environmental Law Center is one of the nation's most powerful defenders of the environment, rooted in the South. With a long track record, SELC takes on the toughest environmental challenges in court, in government, and in our communities to protect our region's air, water, climate, wildlife, lands, and people. Nonprofit and nonpartisan, the organization has a staff of 200, including more than 130 legal and policy experts, and is headquartered in Charlottesville, Va., with offices in Asheville, Atlanta, Birmingham, Chapel Hill, Charleston, Nashville, Richmond, and Washington, D.C. selc.org  

About the Reed Award

SELC created the Reed Environmental Writing Award in 1994 to enhance public awareness of the value and vulnerability of the South's natural treasures and to recognize and encourage the writers who most effectively tell the stories about the region's environment. The award is named for SELC founding trustee Phil Reed, a talented attorney and committed environmental leader who believed deeply in the power of writing to change hearts and minds.

Selected by a distinguished panel of judges, Reed Award winners recently have included Jared Kofsky, Maia Rosenfeld, and Steve Osunsami of ABC News, Jonathan Mingle, author of "Gaslight," Emily Strasser for her book "Half-Life of a Secret," NPR's David Folkenflik with Floodlight's Mario Ariza and Miranda Green, Corban Addison for "Wastelands: The True Story of Farm Country on Trial," Isabelle Chapman author of "Gambling 'America's Amazon" for CNN; and J. Drew Lanham, author of "The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature."

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SOURCE Southern Environmental Law Center