John Hanson Mitchell
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Biography

Background

Along with his nonfiction work, John Hanson Mitchell was the founder and editor of the award winning journal, Sanctuary, published by the Massachusetts Audubon Society. In 2001 he won a Vogelstein grant for Following the Sun. He was awarded an honorary PhD from Fitchburg State University for his work on the book Ceremonial Time and was given three different grants for his work on Looking for Mr. Gilbert. He is also winner of the John Burroughs Essay Award for his Sanctuary piece, "Of Time and the River". In 2000, he was given the New England Booksellers' Award for the body of his work.

Ceremonial Time was Editor's Choice at the NYT'S Book Review; most of his other works were favorably reviewed in the Times, the Boston Globe, Washington Post, L.A. Times, London Times Literary Supplement, etc. A screenplay based on his book Looking for Mr. Gilbert is currently under option. Six books based on the square mile of land featured in Ceremonial Time have been republished by the University of New England Press, collected together as "The Scratch Flat Chronicles". Stray Leaves, a collection of his Sanctuary essays, was published in 2015.

Mitchell attended the Sorbonne and is a graduate of Columbia University with a degree in comparative literature. A former journalist, he has had assignments in Kerala in southern India and also the South China Sea and has written extensively about Western Europe. He was editor of The Curious Naturalist, and a co-author, with Chris Leahy and Tom Conuel, of the coffee table edition of The Nature of Massachusetts (1998), illustrated by the internationally-recognized Swedish painter Lars Jonsson.



Grants and Awards
Charles Engelhard Foundation grants, 2000 and 2001 (for The Quest for R.A. Gilbert)
Claneil Foundation grant, 2000 (for The Quest for R.A. Gilbert)
Nathaniel and Elizabeth P. Stevens Foundation grant (for The Quest for R.A. Gilbert)
Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation grant, 2000 (for Following the Sun)
New England Booksellers' Award for Non-Fiction, 2000 (for the body of his work)
John Burroughs Association, Outstanding Natural History Essay, 1993 (for "Of Time and the River")       
New England Wildflower Society Education Award, 1990 (for Sanctuary Magazine)
Gaia Fellowship, Institute for Food Policy, 1990 (to study resource use in Kerala, India)
Ph.D. (Honorary) Fitchburg State University  (1988)
PIA Graphics Arts Award ( for "Man & Nature", 1975)
Hatch Award for Collateral Copy (for "Man & Nature", 1974)
 


Previous Guest Lectures (excluding readings and land trust lectures)
John Burroughs Society, American Museum of Natural History, NYC
Boston Public Library
Boston Learning Center
Cambridge Club
Cambridge Library Association
Concord Library Association
Concord Museum
Concord Books and Authors
DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum
Harvard Divinity School
Harvard University Summer School of Photography
Harvard School of International Affairs
Harvard School of Education
Littleton Lyceum
Massachusetts Audubon Society
Monadnock Center for Nature, Place, and Culture
Miami University, Oxford, OH
Nantucket Athenaeum
Nantucket Historical Society
New England Aquarium, Environmental Writers Conference
New England Aquarium, Lecture Series
New England Wildflower Society
New Hampshire Writers Association
Orion Society Forgotten Language Tour
Reed Memorial Lecture
Redlands University, Redlands CA
Thoreau Lyceum
Thoreau Society
Tufts University
University of Massachusetts
Writers and Books, Rochester, NY

Mitchell is available for lectures on a range of subjects based on his books.

Productions, Edits & Collaborations
Quabbin: The Accidental Wilderness (Stephen Greene Press, l980)
The Energy Book (Stephen Greene Press, l979)
Sanctuary ("Man & Nature" Series, l977)
The American Years ("Man & Nature" Series, Stephen Greene Press, 1976)
Land Use ("Man & Nature" Series, l975)
Running Water ("Man & Nature" Series, Massachusetts Audubon Society, l974)

Design and Photography
Sanctuary Magazine 1980
The Curious Naturalist 1976
"Backyard Serengeti" 1976
The American Years 1976
Land Use 1975

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