Judges
Note: do not contact the judges with contest queries.
Below are the faculty judges who make this competition possible. Out of dedication to the proliferation of Climate Writers and expansion of climate writing, these judges generously volunteer their time to read through submissions and contribute to the existence of this program.
Martin Puchner
Martin Puchner is the Byron and Anita Wien Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Harvard University. His prize-winning books and anthologies range from philosophy to the arts. His best-selling Norton Anthology of World Literature and his HarvardX online course have brought 4000 years of literature to students across the globe. His new book, Literature for a Changing Planet, draws lessons from world literature for addressing climate change. He is a member of the European Academy and has received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Cullman Fellowship, the Berlin Prize, and the Massachusetts Book Award.
Joyce Chaplin
Joyce E. Chaplin is the James Duncan Phillips Professor of Early American History at Harvard University, where she is an affiliate of the History of Science Department and of the Graduate School of Design. Her awards include a Fulbright Scholarship and a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 2014, she co-founded Harvard Faculty Divest, and she continues to organize efforts across the academy to divest from fossil fuels. She has written for the Times Literary Supplement, The New York Times, and the London Review of Books. Her most recent book is The Franklin Stove: An Unintended American Revolution (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2025).
Tiya Miles
Tiya Miles is a scholar of African American, Native American, and women’s histories whose work examines place, culture, the environment, and social relations. She has published eight books, including four prize-winning histories and a prize-winning novel about gardening, friendship, and ties to the past. Her most recent book is the biography Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People. Her 2021 National Book Award winner, All That She Carried, was a New York Times bestseller. Her works of special interest to environmental readers are: Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation, The Dawn of Detroit: A Chronicle of Slavery and Freedom in the City of the Straits, and The Cherokee Rose: A Novel of Gardens and Ghosts. Miles founded and co-directed the environmental education project, ECO Girls (Environmental & Cultural Opportunities for Girls), which ran weekend programs and a summer camp in southeastern Michigan from 2011-2017. Miles is the recipient of fellowships from the MacArthur, Guggenheim, and Mellon Foundations. She is currently the Michael Garvey Professor of History at Harvard University.
Previous Judges Include
2022
Ali Glassie
Former Postdoctoral Fellow at the Mahindra Humanities Center
Marshall Engell
Gurney Professor of English and Professor of Comparative Literature
Martin Puchner
Byron and Anita Wien Professor of English and Comparative Literature