“I discovered that day, that in finding nature, natures finds you.” And so concluded a winning essay from the Third Annual Last House Writing Contest hosted by Audubon Canyon Ranch, a Northern California conservation organization and steward of iconic American writer M.F.K. Fisher’s “Last House” in the Sonoma Valley.
More than seventy entries were received, with the largest number submitted from young writers aged 13–17, who learned about the contest from teachers and online resources for creative writing.
Essays were received from a dozen US states—and in a first for the contest—approximately one-third of the entries submitted were penned by writers living outside the United States, including from Abu Dhabi, Beijing, India, Singapore, Republic of Korea, United Arab...