Trevor Herriot isn’t sure why his latest book has struck such a chord with readers.
“It’s a difficult thing to figure out,” the Regina author said.
“It’s a book about little obscure brown birds that nobody knows or cares about. They’re just out there in the grass and we most of the time ignore them.”
That might be true, but Grass, Sky, Song: Promise and Peril in the World of Grassland Birds has attracted a lot of attention.
Read Also
Stock dogs show off herding skills at Ag in Motion
Stock dogs draw a crowd at Ag in Motion. Border collies and other herding breeds are well known for the work they do on the farm.
On Oct. 14, Herriot learned he had been nominated for several Saskatchewan Book Awards, including book of the year, as well as the prestigious Governor General’s literary award for non-fiction.
These nominations came two weeks after he was nominated for the $25,000 Writers’ Trust Non-fiction Award.
Herriot said the experience has been overwhelming.
“As you’re writing the book, you’re thinking about the readers and wondering how this is going to connect with people, wondering if anybody will care,” he said. “You get to moments like this and you think, ‘OK, yeah, it really does matter.’ ”
Grass, Sky, Song isn’t just about little brown birds, and Herriot said it isn’t just for naturalists and environmentalists.
The role of grass in feeding the world is also a strong theme.
At the recent Food Security Saskatchewan conference, Herriot noted that grass once covered the Prairies, nurturing bison and other wildlife and serving as a home to birds that are now disappearing.
“Our wildlife is really in fast retreat,” he said.
The populations of 80 percent of grassland birds are declining rapidly, including meadowlarks and barn swallows.
Herriot calls for healthier grasslands, more grass-fed beef and sustainable grass-based agriculture. He writes about zero-till, chemicals and the cost-price squeeze that forces farmers to “cultivate right to the doorstep.”
He said he tried to write a book that doesn’t send readers or farmers on an environmental guilt trip.
“When I thought of readers for this book, I was thinking specifically of people who live in rural prairie areas and who see the meadowlarks on a daily basis, the killdeers and the other prairie birds, and who would like to know a little more about them,” he said.
“But also I wanted to tell them that, ‘hey these birds are disappearing and it isn’t the fault of agriculture,’ but agriculture of course plays a role.”
He doesn’t let urban consumers off the hook, saying they also have to take responsibility.
Herriot’s first book, River in a Dry Land, was also nominated for a Governor General’s Award in 2000. It won the Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize, Regina Book Award and Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award and was named Saskatchewan Book of the Year.
The winners of the Governor General’s Awards are scheduled to be announced Nov. 17 in Montreal and presented in Ottawa Nov. 26, while the Writers’ Trust awards are expected to be announced Nov. 24 in Toronto. The Saskatchewan Book Awards gala is Nov. 28 in Regina.
A complete list of Saskatchewan authors and books short listed for the provincial awards can be found at bookawards.sk.ca.
