Reed Environmental Writing Award
You can now stream the 2025 award ceremony.
Congratulations to our 2025 Reed Award winners.
Through their work, winners Jonathan Mingle, Jared Kofsky, Maia Rosenfeld, and Steve Osunsami demonstrate the power of writing to capture some of the most important environmental issues facing Southern communities.
Book Category
Jonathan Mingle receives the Reed Award for “Gaslight: The Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Fight for America‘s Energy Future.” His book tells the story of communities fighting against Dominion Energy’s proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline in Virginia. This deeply reported account of the struggle between the energy company and local residents raises critical questions about the promotions of methane gas as a “bridge fuel” amidst the climate crisis, and about the broader political and environmental consequences of our continued fossil fuel reliance.
Journalism Category
Jared Kofsky, Maia Rosenfeld, and Steve Osunsami receive the Reed Award for their ABC News investigation, “Our Inheritance is Washing Away ” The two-part story reveals how a highway widening project in Alabama disproportionately harmed the predominantly Black community of Shiloh, causing severe flooding and damage to generational family properties. The reporting highlights residents’ fight for environmental justice and the state’s use of restrictive legal settlements to evade accountability for the project’s discriminatory impacts, emphasizing the ongoing struggle against environmental racism.
2025 Reed Award Featured Speaker
Tim Kaine—current U.S. Senator representing Virginia, former Governor of Virginia, Richmond mayor, and civil rights attorney, and longtime outdoor enthusiast—will be this year’s featured speaker. His latest book is a compelling account of one man’s journey across hundreds of miles of Virginia wilderness and a moving testament to the optimistic spirit of America. “Walk Ride Paddle” provides an unseen glimpse into a life outside.
About the Award
In the long, proud tradition of southern literature, writers have often drawn on the region’s unique natural treasures for inspiration and insight—from the haunting cypress swamps of Georgia to the tall mountains of western North Carolina to the rolling fields of the Virginia piedmont. As the South grows and changes, writers are increasingly exploring our relationship with these natural riches and the challenges they face in this time of transition, and SELC’s Reed Environmental Writing Award honors the best of these storytellers.