About Derrick Jensen

Formal Education

B.Sc. in Mineral Engineering Physics from the Colorado School of Mines — May 1983

M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Eastern Washington University — June 1991

Awards

2008: Thought to Exist in the Wild won second place in the Animal category of the Independent Press IPPY Awards.

2008: Thought to Exist in the Wild won the Eric Hoffer Award, Grand Prize.

2008: I led Press Action’s “Dynamic Dozen.”

2008: I was named one of Utne Reader’s “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World.“

2006: I was the Press Action Person of the Year: “The recipient of this award was never in doubt. Derrick Jensen’s Endgame, released in late spring, was the best work of nonfiction in 2006. Given the significance of its subject matter and the urgency of Jensen’s message, Endgame is the most important book of the decade and could stand as the must-read book of our lifetimes. But be careful. The book is likely to send you into periods of despondency over the bleak future of the planet. But Jensen explains that if enough of us stand up and work together to fight the fascists, the crash won’t be as devastating. And the long struggle will eventually result in an explosive renewal of all forms of life on the planet.”

2003: The Culture of Make Believe was a finalist for the Lukas Prize Project Award for Exceptional Works of Nonfiction, sponsored by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the Nieman Foundation at Harvard.

2002: An interview Ramey Wood did of me on KSUA in Anchorage Alaska won the Alaska Broadcaster’s Association Goldie Award for Best Public Affairs Program

2000: Hackensack, NJ, Record declared A Language Older Than Words its best book of the year.

2000: A Language Older Than Words was nominated for Quality Paperback Book Club’s New Vision Award.

1998: Second Prize in the category of small budget non-profit advertisements, as determined by the Inland Northwest Ad Federation, for the first ad in the “National Forests: Your land, your choice” series.

1995: Critics’ Choice for one of America’s ten best nature books of 1995, for Listening to the Land: Conversations About Nature, Culture, and Eros.

Positions

2011 – Present: Member of Steering Committee of Deep Green Resistance

December 2001 – 2008: Member of Advisory Board of Del Norte Association for Cultural Awareness

March 1997: Member of the Drafting Committee for the articulation of a new food production ethic, sponsored by the Center for Respect of Life and Environment

1996 – 2001: co-founder and member of the Railroads and Clearcuts Campaign

1990 – 2001: Associate Editor of the magazine Transition