Harry Thurston www.harrythurston.ca
Born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, where he grew up on the family farm, Harry has lived most of his life in the province of his birth. However, as an essayist, editor and freelance journalist, Thurston has traveled the globe, writing articles for more than thirty publications, including National Geographic, Audubon, Equinox, Harrowsmith and Canadian Geographic.
Harry Thurston is the author of several collections of poetry and more than a dozen nonfiction books. A biologist and naturalist, he is among the Atlantic region’s best-known nature writers. He has been awarded the Gulf of Maine Council on Marine Environment Visionary Award “for increasing public awareness on environmental issues” as well as two Canadian Science Writers’ Association’s Science & Society Awards, the National Magazine Award for Science & Technology, the Foundation for the Advancement of Canadian Letters Author's Award and the Dorothy Shoemaker Award for Poetry.
He has been Writer-in-Residence at Saint Mary’s University, Mount Allison University, Acadia University, the Pictou-Antigonish Library System, and the Haig Brown House in Campbell River, B.C. He has been Lecturer in Science and Environmental Reporting and Magazine Writing at University of King’s College School of Journalism; in Poetry at St. Mary’s University and in Creative Non-Fiction at the Maritime Writers’ Workshop. In the fall semester of 2012, he will be serving as Writer-in-Residence at Dalhousie University and was the 2014/15 Chair of the Writers’ Union of Canada.
Harry and his wife Catherine live in Tidnish, Cumberland County, Nova Scotia.
The following books are available at the Gallery or through harrythurston@seaside.ns.ca
A Place Between the Tides: A Naturalist’s Reflections on the Salt Marsh, winner of the 2005 Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award in the United States and finalist for the British Columbia Award for Canadian Non-Fiction and for the Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize
A Ship Portrait, a novella in verse, which was adapted as a stage play for the Ships Company Theatre and was a finalist for the Atlantic Poetry Prize.
Animals of My Own Kind, poetry
Building the Bridge to PEI, with photographs by Wayne Barrett & Anne MacKay
Dawning of the Dinosaurs
If Men Lived on Earth, poetry
Island of the Blessed, winner of the Evelyn Richardson Literary Award
Ova Aves, with photographs by Thaddeus Holownia, a finalist for the National Magazine Award for Poetry
Silver Ghost, with photographs by Thaddeus Holownia
The Atlantic Canada Nature Guide with photographs by Wayne Barrett
The Nature of Shorebirds, winner of the Evelyn Richardson Literary Award
The Sea Among the Rocks
The Sea’s Voice, winner of the Best Regional Non-Fiction (Canada-East), Independent Publisher Book Awards (U.S.)
Tidal Life with photographs by Stephen Homer, winner of the City of Dartmouth Book Award, Evelyn Richardson Award for Nonfiction, The Atlantic Booksellers Choice Award
The Atlantic Coast, winner of the Lane Anderson Award for Best Science Writing in Canada, the Dartmouth Nonfiction and the Evelyn Richardson awards.
The Deer Yard (poetry) co-authored with Allan Cooper