John R. Nelson

John Nelson has contributed essays on birds and literature to The Antioch Review, The Gettysburg Review, Harvard Magazine, The Harvard Review, The Massachusetts Review, The New England Review, and various birding magazines in the U.S. and Great Britain. His essay “Brolga the Dancing Crane Girl,” on birds and dance, was awarded the Carter Prize for the best non-fiction work published in Shenandoah during the 2011-2012 season. He received a B.A. in English from Harvard University and an M.A. from the University of Illinois, with some graduate work at Oxford University, and he taught American literature for over three decades at North Shore Community College in Danvers, Massachusetts. He has published a book, Cultivating Judgment (New Forums Press), on the teaching of critical thinking skills, and he has lectured on birds and literature at such venues as the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, and the statewide Massachusetts Birders’ Meeting.