“Bombs Away,” the book by David Havlick, professor of Geography and Environmental Studies, received the 2018 John Brinckerhoff Jackson Prize from the American Association of Geographers and is a finalist for the 2019 Colorado Book Award’s general nonfiction category.
“Finishing a book always brings a mix of excitement and fear, where it’s a relief to have it done but you also wonder if anyone’s going to read or appreciate it,” Havlick said. “So, it’s a wonderful surprise to see the book recognized this way. Of course, my main hope is still just that people might read it and get something useful out of it!”
“Bombs Away: Militarization, Conservation, and Ecological Restoration” details his research on how some of the most dangerous places for humans are providing safe havens for wildlife, and the military-to-wildlife transition that has occurred around the world. Many of these are installations are no longer useful to the military while others are international sites of militarization or weapons testing that have moved to new purposes. Europe’s Iron Curtain borderlands now provides the core areas of an emergent European Green Belt that extends from the Black Sea to the Baltic Sea.
“Bombs Away” was published April 2018 by the University of Chicago Press.
The John Brinckerhoff Jackson Prize is presented to an American geographer who writes a book about the United States which convey the insights of professional geography in language that is both interesting and attractive to the average reader. Havlick will recognized along with Tara Patricia Cookson of the University of British Columbia (Globe Book Award for Public Understanding of Geography) and Martin Doyle of Duke University (Meridian Book Award for Outstanding Scholarly Work in Geography) at during the 2019 AAG Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., April 7.
The 27th Colorado Book Awards are presented to Colorado authors, editors, illustrators and photographers in at least 10 categories. Havlick was named a finalist in the general nonfiction category along with Rory Kress (“Doggie in the Window”), Jason Heller (“Strange Stars: David Bowie, Pop Music, and the Decade Sci-Fi Exploded”) and L.S. Gardiner (“Tales from an Uncertain World: What Other Assorted Disasters Can Teach Us About Climate Change”). Havlick will present a six-minute reading from the book from 7-9 p.m. April 26 at the BookBar, 4280 Tennyson St., Denver. The awards will be presented at 4:30 p.m., May 18, at the Arvada Center for the Arts & Humanities, 6901 Wadsworth Blvd., Arvada, Colorado. Tickets are available at coloradohumanities.org or by phone at (303) 894-7951, ext. 10.
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