Events

The 2025 Henry David Thoreau Prize for Literary Excellence in Nature Writing, known as the Thoreau Prize, will be awarded to Robert Macfarlane.  This program will be also livestreamed from TriCon Church’s youtube page here: https://www.youtube.com/@TriConChurch/streams   The Thoreau Prize was established in 2010 by nature writer Dale Peterson. In 2020, the Thoreau Society began…

If there is one feature that defines the human condition, it is language: written, spoken, signed, understood, and misunderstood, in all its infinite glory. In this ingenious, lyrical exploration, Julie Sedivy draws on years of experience in the lab and a lifetime of linguistic love to bring the discoveries of linguistics home, to the place…

Henry Thoreau was not a hermit. And although he wrote that he preferred solitude over society, Thoreau was extremely close to his family. He was also a part of a larger social circle made up of the era’s literary giants, including Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne. This talk brings Thoreau’s world to life, his…

Join us for an open forum to discuss the future of the Thoreau Society, including the potential merger with the Thoreau Farm Trust. This conversation will explore ways to strengthen the organization and its community, enhance its publications, fellowships, and scholarship, and expand its reach and impact. Members and stakeholders are encouraged to share their…

Linda Coombs (Aquinnah Wampanoag), author and historian from the Wampanoag Tribe of Aquinnah, will join John Kucich, president of the Thoreau Society, in a conversation about Thoreau and Native Americans and John’s new book Unsettling Thoreau: Native Americans, Settler Colonialism, and the Power of Place (University of Massachusetts Press, 2024). Drawing on Indigenous studies and critiques of…

A radical proposal for healing the relationship between humans and forests through responsible, sustainable use of local and regional wood in home building. American homes are typically made of lumber and plywood delivered by a global system of ruthless extraction, or of concrete and steel, which are even worse for the planet. Wood is often…

Only those who love trees should cut them, writes forester Ethan Tapper. In How to Love a Forest, he asks: what does it mean to live in a time in which ecosystems are in retreat and extinctions rattle the bones of the earth? How do we respond to the harmful legacies of the past? How do…

Henry Thoreau did not “flee” to nature to escape the human world, but rather used his observations of patterns and phenomena in the landscapes around him to reflect upon the human condition. The presentation also addresses the political and cultural history of Henry Thoreau’s New England, with a focus on Concord’s early Black inhabitants. Zoë Pollak received…