Essay Contest Winners

Guy and Laura Waterman spent a lifetime reflecting and writing on the Northeast’s mountains. The Waterman fund seeks to further their legacy of stewardship through essays that celebrate and explore issues of wilderness, wildness, and humans through the Fund’s annual essay contest.

Interested in entering your essay in our current contest? Learn more here ›

 

YearAuthorEssay TitleAward (in $)
2022Olivia BoxWhat Climate Models Don't Show1500
2021Jason MazurowskiSplitting Clouds at the Edge of the World1500
2021Claire DumontHow COVID-19 Exposed the Myth of Wilderness and Revealed its Potential: A Reflection on 2020 through a Hike of the Long Trail500
2021Keely O'ConnellBird's Eye View
2020Lorraine MonteagutThe Wild Self, What is wild to one is home to another1500
2019Jennifer O'ConnellValley of the Bulls1500
2019Alex PickensThe Do's and Don't's of Trail Running in the Appalachian Mountains1500
2019John AndersonHumor in the Wild500
2018Emily HeidenreichOn Ceding Control1500
2018Tyler SocashThe Torch of Preservation500
2017No Award Given
2016No Award Given
2015Dove HenryOne Tough Gal1500
2015Erica BerryLady and the Camp500
2014Jenny Kelly WagnerThe Cage Canyon1500
2013Michael WejchertEpigoni, Revisited1500
2012Katherine DykstraA Place for Everything1500
2012Angela ZukowskiWilderness500
2011Blair BravermanOn Being Lost1000
2011Bethany TaylorThe Warp and Weft1000
2010Dianne FallonHunting the Woolly Adelgid1500
2009Jeremy LoebA Ritual Descent1500
2008Kimberley S.K. BealClimate Change at the Top1500

Additional Notable Essays

November 2008 – Dark Night on Whitewall, Will Kemeza

October 2008 – Looking Up, Sandy Stott

September 2008 – Fay’s Quandary Revisited, Nat Scrimshaw

August 2008 – Meditation on Winter Camping, Sally Manikian

July 2008 – A Pocket of the Mountains, N. Blauss

June 2008- The Evolution of a Trail Worker, Matt Moore

May 2008 – A Cup of Mountain Tea, Jeremy Loeb