Robert Finch (nature writer) explained

Robert Finch (born 1943) is an American author, essayist, and radio commentator.

Biography

He was born in New Jersey and grew up in West Virginia. He has lived in Cape Cod since 1971 and has written several books about the nature, natural and human histories of Cape Cod. His first book, Common Ground: A Naturalist's Cape Cod (1981), was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction in 1982.

Robert Finch has served as publications director for the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History and as a staff member of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference at Middlebury College. His radio show with the National Public Radio member station WGBH, titled "A Cape Cod Notebook", won the 2006 "New England Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Radio Writing." For ten years, Finch also taught creative nonfiction in the Spalding University Master of Fine Arts program.^[1]

Awards

• Nomination for Pulitzer Prize (Common Ground, 1981)
• Fellowship, Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, 1982
• New England Literary Lights Award, Associates of the Boston Public Library, 1999
• New England Booksellers Association Non-Fiction Award for 2001
• Notable Essays, The Best American Essays, 2000, ed. Alan Lightman
• Notable Essays, The Best American Essays 2006, ed. Lauren Slater
• 2005 Edward R. Murrow Award for Radio Writing
• 2013 Edward R. Murrow Award for Radio Writing

Praise for Robert Finch

Annie Dillard said: "Robert Finch is one of our finest observers...I admire his essays very much for their strength, subtlety, and above all their geniality."^[2]

Bibliography

Collections of Essays

• Common Ground: A Naturalist's Cape Cod, W. W. Norton, 1981. .
• The Primal Place, W. W. Norton, 1983. .
• Outlands: Journey to the Outer Edges of Cape Cod (1986)
• Advisory Editor, On Nature (Daniel Halpern, Ed.), North Point Press, 1987.
• The Norton Book of Nature Writing (Co-Editor), W. W. Norton (1990, Second Edition, 2002) (co-edited with John Elder)
• The Cape Itself (with photographs by Ralph Mackenzie), W. W. Norton, 1991. .
• A Place Apart: A Cape Cod Reader (Editor), W. W. Norton, 1993. .
• Cape Cod: Its Natural and Cultural History, National Park Service. 1994.
• The Smithsonian Guide to Natural America: Southern New England: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island (co-authored with Jonathan Wallen), 1996.
• Death of a Hornet: and Other Cape Cod Essays, 2001. .
• Special Places on Cape Cod and The Islands, Commonwealth Editions, 2003.
• The Iambics of Newfoundland: Notes from an Unknown Shore, 2007. .
• A Cape Cod Notebook, 2011. .
• A Cape Cod Notebook 2, Clock & Rose Press, 2016.
• The Outer Beach: A Thousand-Mile Walk on Cape Cod’s Atlantic Shore, W. W. Norton, 2017. .

External links

• "A Cape Cod Notebook" from the WCAI website

Notes and References

1. Web site: 19th Century Mapmaking of the Cape & Islands. Cape Cod Today. 22 October 2009. 22 October 2009. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110721094845/http://www.capecodtoday.com/calendar-2009-10-28-event-13779.htm. 21 July 2011.
2. Book: Finch, Robert . Death of a Hornet: and Other Cape Cod Essays . back cover . Counterpoint . 2001 . 1-58243-138-8.