The 2026 Clara Johnson Award Ceremony for Tamara Dean will be held October 15, 6:30 p.m. CT, 7:30 ET Click here to attend the ceremony on Zoom.
Tamara Dean’s captivating collection of essays, Shelter and Storm: At Home in the Driftless, introduces the reader to a wondrously rugged and gorgeous topological phenomenon in the northern Midwest. Geologists call this region the Driftless because the area was unaffected by glacial drift.
With profound reverence and awe for this land’s ecological uniqueness, Dean chronicles her life with her partner as homesteading farmers in the Driftless. While delving into this wild region’s natural and human history, she examines her own struggles with building a life in the middle of this land. Dean clarifies her own voice in her book. She is a “citizen scientist,” an advocate for ecological awareness, a survivor of natural disasters caused by global warming, and an author who inspires the reader to reevaluate humankind’s relationship with the natural world. You must read this book!
