Dara McAnulty

Dara McAnulty
Born (2004-03-31) 31 March 2004 (age 20)
OccupationNaturalist, writer and environmental campaigner
Notable awards

Dara Seamus McAnulty BEM (born 31 March 2004)[1] is a naturalist, writer and environmental campaigner from Northern Ireland.[2][3] He is the youngest ever winner of the RSPB Medal and received the Wainwright Prize for UK nature writing in 2020 after being the youngest author to be shortlisted for the award.

Personal life

McAnulty was born in 2004 and lives with his family near the Mourne Mountains, Northern Ireland. He attended Shimna Integrated College, completing school in 2022, and has since studied natural sciences at Queen's College, Cambridge.[4]

In mid-2021, Monisha Rajesh reported in The Guardian that McAnulty had left Twitter after receiving abuse as a result of having raised concerns about Kate Clanchy's descriptions of autistic students and students of colour in her book Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me.[5] As of April 2024 his profile on X, formerly Twitter, states that he has been a member since June 2016.[6]

He is an ambassador for the RSPCA and the Jane Goodall Institute.

Writings

His debut book Diary of a Young Naturalist which chronicles the turning of his fourteenth year, was released in May 2020.[7][8] It details his intense connection to the natural world as an autistic teenager. He is the youngest ever author shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize[9] for UK Nature Writing, and he won the 2020 prize.[10] He was also awarded the An Post Irish Book Award for Newcomer of the Year.[11] In 2021, he was shortlisted for the Dalkey Literary Award (Emerging Writer)[12] and won the British Book Award for narrative non-fiction.[13]

He has written for The Big Issue,[14] The Guardian,[15] has presented radio for BBC Radio Ulster and has appeared on Springwatch and Countryfile. He has also written and presented for BBC Radio 4's Tweet of the Day.[16] He was a part of "The People's Walk for Wildlife"[17] organised by television naturalist Chris Packham. He is a vocal campaigner on environmental issues.[18]

In June 2021 McAnulty began writing a monthly nature column for The Irish Times.[19]

Awards and recognition

McAnulty's first book, Diary of a Young Naturalist, won the 2020 Wainwright Prize for UK nature writing,[20] after being the youngest author to be shortlisted for the award.[citation needed] His second book, Wild Child, was shortlisted for the 2022 Wainwright Prize for Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation.[21]

He is also the youngest author to be long-listed for the 2020 Baillie Gifford Prize for non-fiction[22] and for the shortlist for the 2020 Books Are My Bag Readers' Awards, which he won in the non-fiction category.[23]

McAnulty was celebrated in "Points of Light" in 2018 by the UK Prime Minister for his work in connecting young people to nature.[24] His campaigning work against raptor persecution[25] and biodiversity loss[26] earned him the RSPB Medal for Conservation[27] in 2019: the award has been previously won by naturalists such as Sir David Attenborough.

McAnulty was awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to the environment and people with autism spectrum disorder.[28]

Bibliography

  • Diary of a Young Naturalist. Little Toller Books. 2020. ISBN 978-1908213792.
  • Wild Child : A Journey Through Nature. Macmillan. 2021. ISBN 978-1529045321.

References

  1. ^ McAnulty, Dara (2020). Diary of a Young Naturalist. Little Toller. p. 23. ISBN 9781908213792.
  2. ^ Barkham, Patrick (16 May 2020). "Natural talent: the 16 year-old writer taking the world by storm". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
  3. ^ Stephenson, Hannah (4 July 2020). "Naturalist Dara McAnulty: Only when the last person stops caring are we truly lost". The Irish News. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
  4. ^ "Interview with former student Dara McAnulty featured in Cambridge University magazine". Shimna Integrated College. 3 May 2023. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
  5. ^ Rajesh, Monisha (13 August 2021). "Pointing out racism in books is not an 'attack' – it's a call for industry reform". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 April 2024. ... including Dara McAnulty, the 17-year-old autistic author of the award-winning Diary of a Young Naturalist. He highlighted several pages from the book that describe two autistic children as "odd", suggesting they might live in "ASD land". McAnulty then left Twitter after receiving so much abuse that his mother had to try to hide it from him.
  6. ^ McAnulty, Dara. "@NaturalistDara". X. Retrieved 10 April 2024.
  7. ^ Preston, Alex (7 June 2020). "Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty review - miraculous memoir". The Observer. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
  8. ^ Comerford, Ruth (27 May 2020). "Little Toller reprints Diary of a Young Naturalist". The Bookseller. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
  9. ^ "Nature Writing | Shortlist 2020 | Diary of A Young Naturalist". The Wainwright Prize. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
  10. ^ "Shortlists announced for the 2020 Wainwright Prize". The Wainwright Prize. 30 July 2020. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
  11. ^ "Winners of An Post Irish Book Awards 2020 announced". RTÉ. 25 November 2020. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
  12. ^ "Shortlist for the Emerging Writer Award 2021". Dalkey Literary Awards. Zurich Ireland. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
  13. ^ "British Book Award Winners Announced – But Are You in the Mood for a Cry or a Page-Turner?". Isle of Wight Radio. 14 May 2021. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
  14. ^ "Dara McAnulty on lockdown: 'These stagnant days are full of life'". The Big Issue. 11 June 2020. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
  15. ^ McAnulty, Dara (16 May 2020). "'I want to find the beauty in everything': Dara McAnulty's Diary of a Young Naturalist". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
  16. ^ "Dara and Tweet of the Day". markavery.info. 29 June 2017. Retrieved 9 April 2024.[self-published source]
  17. ^ "The People's Walk for Wildlife". laurencerose.co.uk. 23 September 2018. Retrieved 9 April 2024.[self-published source]
  18. ^ Simpson, Claire (4 October 2019). "Hundreds of species in north 'could become extinct'". The Irish News. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
  19. ^ "Dara McAnulty: Beside the sea I feel winged, like I might fly off". The Irish Times. 26 June 2021. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
  20. ^ "Winners of Wainwright Prize 2020 Announced". Wainwright Prize. 8 September 2020. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
  21. ^ "James Cropper Wainwright Prize 2022 shortlists announced". Wainwright Prize. 28 July 2022. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
  22. ^ Flood, Alison (10 September 2020). "Dara McAnulty becomes youngest ever finalist for Baillie Gifford prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
  23. ^ Doyle, Martin (12 November 2020). "Maggie O'Farrell and Dara McAnulty win Books Are My Bag awards". The Irish Times. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
  24. ^ "#iwill Young Naturalist Blogger | 1051. Dara McAnulty". Points of Light. Prime Minister's Office | 10 Downing Street. 19 November 2018. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
  25. ^ Monahan, Meadhbh (4 February 2018). "Teen wildlife enthusiast Dara McAnulty raises over £5,000 for raptor tagging project by completing 45k ramble". The Impartial Reporter. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
  26. ^ Campbell, Brian (1 November 2019). "Young naturalist Dara receives RSPB award for his conservation campaigning". RSPB NI (Press release). RSPB Media Centre. Archived from the original on 18 May 2022.
  27. ^ Corr, Shauna (4 November 2019). "Co Down lad follows in Sir David Attenborough's footsteps as youngest ever winner of prestigious RSPB Medal". Belfast Live. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
  28. ^ "No. 63918". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2022. p. N32.