Almost 28 years after the prize was established, a female author has won it for the first time.
Environmental journalist gaia, a journalist and broadcaster based in London, has won the 2015 Royal Society Winton prize for Science Books. She collected the award at a ceremony on Thursday.
Environmental Journalist Gaia belongs to a list of past recipients in the field of science journalism that includes Stephen Hawking, Stephen Jay Gould, James Gleick, Jared Diamond, and Bill Bryson.
Her book, Adventures in the Anthropocene: A Journey to the Heart of the Planet We Made, was researched across the globe for over two years after Vince resigned from her post as an editor at Nature magazine. A period of Earth’s geological history coined in the 1980s, Anthropocene describes humans as the most influential force on Earth.
I found the writing assignment to be uncomfortable. The past few years, he has traveled to many areas where humanity’s exploitation of Earth’s resources has caused the most severe damage to people and the environment. Poor people have been hardest hit since they have been the most affected. In addition to slums in Colombia, the author visited a silver mine in Bolivia, a slum along the way, as well as a slum in Bolivia. In the Caribbean, she found that builders had built an island out of trash and decorated it with palm trees and papaya leaves when she landed. The island was surrounded by two wooden homes. When she contracted malaria while traveling the world, her globetrotting adventure was cut short.
The chair of the judges, Ian Stewart, expressed his appreciation for Vince’s research into an underreported area of science and his ability to write an original story. Vince was unanimously recognized as the winner of the competition by Stewart, who said that all of the judges were in agreement. Earlier this week, Vince stated as part of an e-mail he sent that his “dedication to this book” is a source of pride for all of us, as well as a source of humility. It was evident that while she provided a detailed analysis of the issue of the day, she did so in a way that allowed for empowerment while also never allowing complacency to set in. The fact that we are acknowledging and recognizing the importance of this project today is highly satisfying for me.
The Royal Society of Literature has given the book prize this year to Grace Vince, which makes her the first woman to win the prestigious award as a solo author. In fact, this is the first time a woman has ever received such a prize, which can be worth up to £25,000. Originally published in 1987, this novella is the work of Alan Walker, who with Pat Shipman wrote The Wisdom of Bones, which won the award in 1997.
The judges thanked Vince several times during his acceptance speech for having chosen him to receive this award. She was informed that the money she was going to bet was going to bet on someone else, and she responded, I wasn’t going to bet on you.