Rick Bass is a distinguished nature writer, fiction writer, and environmental activist. He has written over 26 books, including the nonfiction work The Black Rhinos of Namibia (2012) and the fiction collection For a Little While (2016), for which he won the Story Prize. Bass returns to Beloit College after serving as our fourth Mackey Chair in 1992-93, and his nature-writing fiction has been called one of “tomorrow’s classics” by critic George Plimpton. He has been awarded the PEN/Nelson Algren Award Special Citation for fiction, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, the James Jones Literary Society First Novel Fellowship, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for his autobiographical writing. Bass holds a Bachelor of Science in Geology with a focus in Wildlife from Utah State University, and worked as an oil and gas geologist and consultant before becoming an influential environmental writer and teacher.