Phillip Connors grew up on a farm in southwestern Minnesota, "halfway between Minneota and Worthington," he said in an interview with Twin Cities Metro earlier this year--which places him halfway between Bill Holms' hometown, and that of Tim O'Brien. "Together they comprise about half of the writers worth mentioning from that part of the world," he said.
But Connors was being modest. His first book, "Fire Season: Notes from a Wilderness Lookout," has been widely praised and now is a winner of a National Outdoor Book Award. The award, co-sponsored by National Outdoor Book Award Foundation, the Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education, and Idaho State University, is meant to recognize outstanding writing about the outdoors in ten categories.
Connors' book won in the category of "outdoor literature."
He attended St. Thomas and then headed to New York and a job at the Wall Street Journal. But for the last ten years, he has spent summers (with his dog, Alice) as a fire lookout in the Gila National Forest of New Mexico.
Here's our review of his book, which ran in April.
