We’re delighted to announce that the winner of the third Nan Shepherd Prize is Alycia Pirmohamed, with her urgent, captivating submission A Beautiful and Vital Place.
She receives a £10,000 publishing contract with Canongate and an offer of literary representation from Caro Clarke at Portobello Literary.
As a young Muslim girl caught in the psychological aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, she was confronted with her body as racialised and her faith as seemingly dangerous. As she grew up, wherever she made home – Midwestern Canada, the Pacific Northwest, East Africa, and the UK – the landscape came to represent her understanding of her body, as it feels safe or unsafe, welcome or unwelcome. Each essay is deeply rooted in place, and the result is a love letter to the self and nature.
The judges emphasised that they found something compelling about each of the shortlisted entries, and that all of them were, in their own way, surprising and important. On A Beautiful and Vital Place they said:
“We all agreed that Alycia’s piece has a poet’s sensibility: full of beautiful, visceral writing. We were drawn to the vulnerability at the heart of the writing and her artistic as well as transnational journey. Showing a real strength in engaging with other texts and concepts, this was anchored by a winningly distinct voice and a perspective of Muslim queerness that felt urgent and fresh.”
Alycia is the third winner of the Nan Shepherd Prize for underrepresented voices in nature writing, following Nina Mingya Powles and Marchelle Farrell. The prize will next run in 2025. Alycia said: “It's an honour to win the Nan Shepherd Prize – a prize I wholeheartedly believe in. I’m so grateful to the judges for trusting in this book, and for this opportunity to carve out a space in nature writing. Underrepresented identities are politicised; right now, world powers and mainstream media are dehumanising Muslims to justify war crimes in Palestine. My book navigates Islamophobia and my experience as a Muslim woman, and it’s more important than ever for our voices to be heard in this political climate.”
Alycia Pirmohamed is a Canadian-born poet based in Scotland. She is the author of the pamphlets Hinge and Faces that Fled the Wind, as well as the collaborative pamphlet Second Memory, co-authored by Pratyusha. Her debut poetry collection, Another Way to Split Water, was published by Polygon (UK) and YesYes Books (US). She is the recipient of several awards, including a Pushcart Prize, the 2019 CBC Poetry Prize and the 2020 Edwin Morgan Poetry Award.
The Night Run
Lang: The City Many Times Before and After
Potatoes and Other Hobbies
Morphoses: On Nature’s Processes and Processed Nature
A Beautiful and Vital Place
threading rak flowers
The Night Run
This Is Not A Wasteland
Lang: The City Many Times Before and After
Tube Forest
Earth Diving
A History of Abandonment
Potatoes and Other Hobbies
Fragmented
Morphoses: On Nature’s Processes and Processed Nature
The Dye Path
Making A Living
Diviner
Source Material
Wild Swimming
A Beautiful and Vital Place
threading rak flowers
Land Beneath the Waves
Moving between Trinidad and an idyllic English country garden, this lyrical and reflective book is about the search for home.
In lyrical, powerful prose, Small Bodies of Water weaves together memories, dreams and nature writing. Exploring everything from migration, food, family, earthquakes to the ancient lunisolar calendar.