Harry Thurston

Harry Thurston was born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia in 1950. He graduated with a B.Sc. in biology from Acadia University in 1971.  He was awarded Honorary Doctorates by Acadia University, Wolfville, N.S. in 2013 and by St. Thomas University, Fredericton, N.B. in 2021.

Since 1977 he has been a full-time writer, poet, playwright, journalist, editor, educator, and ecologist. Since 2013, he has been a Mentor for the Masters of Fine Arts program in Creative Non-Fiction at University of King’s College in Halifax, N.S.  He has taught poetry at Saint Mary’s University and journalism at University of King’s College in Halifax, and served as writer-in-residence at Mount Allison and Acadia universities. In 2009-10 he served as the Haig-Brown Writer-in-Residence in Campbell River, B.C.

He was the 2014-15 Chair of the Writers Union of Canada.

Travelling the globe for four decades, Harry has been a contributor to more than 30 North American magazines- on environmental issues, natural history, and art, among other topics (including National Geographic, Audubon, Equinox, Harrowsmith, Canadian Geographic, International Wildlife, Canadian Wildlife, National Wildlife, Canadian Art, enRoute, Globe & Mail, Island Journal, Reader’s Digest, Scandinavian Review and Yankee Homes).  He has received numerous magazine journalism awards, including the Canadian Science Writers’ Association Science & Society Award, Foundation for the Advancement of Canadian Letters Award for Public Affairs, and the National Magazine Award for Science & Technology.  He also received the Visionary Award of the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment, “for increasing public awareness on environmental issues” in 1994.

Likewise, his books of non-fiction, natural history, memoir and poetry have received numerous honours.  A four-time winner of the Evelyn Richardson Prize for the best non-fiction book by a Nova Scotian, he has also received the Dartmouth Book Award and Atlantic Booksellers’ Choice Award for Tidal Life, A Natural History of the Bay of Fundy.  A Place Between The Tides, A Naturalist’s Reflections on the Salt Marsh, was a finalist for the Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize and the inaugural British Columbia Award for Canadian Non-fiction and winner of the 2005 Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award in the United States.  A Ship Portrait, A Novella-in-Verse, was a finalist for the Atlantic Poetry Prize and was later adapted for the stage. Ova Aves was nominated for the National Magazine Award for Poetry.  The Atlantic Coast: A Natural History received the City of Dartmouth Book Award for Nonfiction as well as the Lane Anderson Award for Best Science Writing in Canada.

He served as contributing editor to Equinox magazine for two decades and established himself on the Atlantic Canada literary scene as editor and publisher of the literary journal, Germination, a Hotbed of Verse Culture.

He has written two plays which were performed at the Ships Company Theatre in Parrsboro, N.S.  He has also performed with classical musical groups, Tempest Baroque Ensemble and Pallade Musica, bringing poetry (his own and that of Elizabeth Bishop) alive for audiences.

Within his community, he has worked tirelessly for many years, often as a spokesperson for the organization, Cumberland Wilderness, a citizens’ group established in 2005 to advance wilderness protection in Cumberland County, N.S.  This group has significantly advanced conservation in the region by advocating successfully for the creation of protected Wilderness Areas totaling more than 30,000 hectares, including the Kelley River and Raven Head Wilderness Areas. The work continues to create and maintain migration corridors for large mammals across the Chignecto Isthmus connecting Nova Scotia to mainland North America.

A biologist and naturalist, he is among Canada’s best-known nature writers. He lives in Tidnish Bridge, Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, Canada.  Email: harry@harrythurston.ca

AWARDS:

J. M. Abraham Atlantic Poetry Award, 2024 finalist for Ultramarine

Honorary Doctorate of Letters, St. Thomas University, 2021

Honorary Doctorate of Literature, Acadia University, 2013

Relit Poetry Award, shortlist for Keeping Watch at the End of the World 2016

Lane Anderson Award for Best Science Writing in Canada for The Atlantic Coast: A Natural History, 2012

The Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award for A Place Between The Tides, A Naturalist’s Reflections On The Salt Marsh, 2005

Evelyn Richardson Memorial Literary Awards for: The Atlantic Coast: A Natural History, 2012; Island Of The Blessed, The Secrets of Egypt’s Everlasting Oasis, 2004; for The Nature of Shorebirds, 1996; and for Tidal Life, A Natural History of the Bay of Fundy, 1991.

City of Dartmouth Book Award for The Atlantic Coast: A Natural History, 2012 and for Tidal Life, A Natural History of the Bay of Fundy, 1991; Finalist for If Men Lived on Earth 2001

Atlantic Poetry Prize finalist for A Ship’s Portrait, a Novella in Verse, 2006

Best Regional Non-Fiction (Canada-East) Independent Publisher Book Awards (USA) for The Sea’s Voice: An Anthology of Atlantic Canadian Nature Writing 2006

British Columbia Award for Canadian Non-Fiction finalist for A Place Between the Tides, 2005

Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize finalist for A Place Between the Tides, 2005

Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment, Visionary Award, “for increasing public awareness on environmental issues”, 1994.

Atlantic Booksellers’ Choice Award for Tidal Life, A Natural History of the Bay of Fundy, 1991.

Canadian Science Writers’ Association Science & Society Awards, 1986 & 1987

National Magazine Award for Science & Technology Silver Medal 1983; Honorable Mention, Poetry for Ova Aves, 2012

Foundation for the Advancement of Canadian Letters, Author’s Award Public Affairs 1982 & Personality Profile 1982 & 1987

Dorothy Shoemaker Award for Poetry, Mid-western Ontario Library System. 1976