Canadian author Margaret Atwood has won the Orion Book Award for fiction for her work MaddAddam. Scottish writer Kathleen Jamie won the prize for nonfiction for her work Sightlines: A Conversation with the Natural World.
The prizes are awarded to books that “deepen the reader’s connection to the natural world through fresh ideas and excellence in writing.” “Margaret Atwood’s witty insights into the lay of our cultural and environmental landscape infuse her work with just the right balance of devastation and humor,” explained the editors of Orion magazine that chose Atwood, in a statement. “She has a masterful grasp of how storytelling is intimately tied to resilience, and nowhere is that more evident than in this newest novel.”
The editors went on to explain why they chose Jamie’s work. “Kathleen Jamie’s Sightlines dissects the natural world with precision, humor, and love,” reads the statement. “The essays in this book not only inspire us to look more closely, but also have the power to open us up to a new kind of emotional experience of the planet.”