Dr Michael Malay's book Late Light, which previously won the Richard Jefferies Award, has been awarded the 2024 Wainwright Prize for Top Nature Writing. Dr Malay's book tells the story of his own journey, an Indonesian Australian making a home for himself in England and finding strange parallels between his life and the lives of four “unloved” animals – eels, moths, crickets and mussels – he examines.

Dr Malay shares a £7,500 prize with two other winners in conservation writing (Helen Czerski) and children's nature writing (Katya Balen), who were announced at a ceremony at Camley Street Natural Park, an urban nature reserve in London. The prizes celebrate books that encourage readers to embrace nature and develop respect for the environment.

Khalil Thirlaway, who chaired the judging panel, praise Late Light for its portrayal of “evolving emotional and intellectual relationships with people, place and nature in a way that’s very easy to get on board with, while still having moments of beautiful prose that uplift the reading experience.“ 

You can find more coverage of Dr Malay's win in The Guardian, more information about Late Light on the English Bookshelf, and information about Dr Malay's research and teaching on his faculty profile.