The John Burroughs Association announces the 2011 winner of its annual award, created 85 years ago to honor outstanding natural history writing, a genre perfected by John Burroughs: Elisabeth Tova Bailey, for her book The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating (Algonquin Books, 2010). In her book, Bailey shares an inspiring and intimate story of her uncommon encounter with a Neohelix albolabris—a common woodland snail.