The National Outdoor Book Awards (NOBA) is the outdoor world’s largest and most prestigious book award program. It is a non-profit, educational program, sponsored by the National Outdoor Book Awards Foundation, Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education, and Idaho State University.
The purpose of the awards is to recognize and encourage outstanding writing and publishing. Each fall in early November, the NOBA Foundation announces the winners of the ten categories making up the program, including History, Literature, Children, Nature, Natural History, Instructional, Adventure Guidebook, Nature Guidebook, Design, and Outdoor Classic.
This year “An Entirely Synthetic Fish” by Anders Halverson won the Natural History Literature category. Halverson’s book is about rainbow trout, which is the most widely stocked fish in the world. But recently biologists have realized that it competes with native fish, and, in a complete about-face in attitude, it is now being eradicated in some locations.
