Not only is Audrey Benedict and Joe Gaydos’ book about Salish Sea a best seller, but it is now an award winner as well!

The Salish Sea: Jewel of the Pacific Northwest received the Nautilus GOLD book award in the category of Ecology and Environment. The Nautilus Award is an annual accolade for books that contribute to the body of knowledge and understanding for a better world. Established in 1998, it is considered a "major" book award and has been given to many famous authors including Desmond Tutu, the Dali Lama, and Deepak Chopra.

Upon hearing about the award, Joe Gaydos said, "We're honored and humbled! For a regionally- focused book like The Salish Sea to receive this national award will hopefully bring big attention to this relatively undiscovered gem, the Salish Sea."

In addition to The Salish Sea: Jewel of the Pacific Northwest winning the only Gold award, four books received the Silver award in the area of Ecology and the Environment: Rainforest in a City; Let there Be Water: Isreal’ solution for a water-starved world, Power Shift: From fossil Energy to Dynamic Solar Power, and Reclaiming the Wild Soul. Read the full list of winners here.

Audrey and the book’s photo curator, Wendy Shattil will attend the award ceremony in Chicago this May.

In a release about the awards, reviewers collectively commented that the experience of reading, reviewing, and evaluating the entries this year made us more hopeful than ever. There are marvelous offerings among this year's Winners. You will find an upwelling of deeply wise and creative connectivity that will only grow more coherent in this next decade. We welcome the innovative, caring, and "push the envelope" messages in many of these books.

You can buy The Salish Sea: Jewel of the Pacific Northwest online and from your local bookstore.