Awards and Honors
Winner, 2009 Maggie Award for Best Feature Article in a consumer publication, given by Western Publishing Association, for “The Last Empire: Can the world survive China’s rush to emulate the American way of life?”, Mother Jones Magazine, Jan/Feb 2008.
Winner, 2008 Society of Professional Journalists Northern California Chapter Award for Outstanding Explanatory Reporting, Print, for “The Last Empire: Can the world survive China’s rush to emulate the American way of life?”, Mother Jones Magazine, Jan/Feb 2008.
Third Place, Society of Environmental Journalists Award for Outstanding Explanatory Reporting, Print, for “The Last Empire: Can the world survive China’s rush to emulate the American way of life?”, Mother Jones Magazine, Jan/Feb 2008. The citation states:
“With a writing style that is at times rollicking and evocative and at other times providing lucid explanations of complex connections, Leslie reports on the environmental devastation behind China's economic boom. He alternates thoroughly researched passages — on water pollution, world-leading greenhouse gas emissions and other impacts — with descriptions of the scenes and characters encountered during a wild ride across the countryside with his madcap Chinese driver and guide. The story is hard to put down. Answers the question, ‘What would you get by crossing Hunter S. Thompson with Bill McKibben and sending him to China?’”
Winner, 2006 Drunken Boat Panliterary Award in Nonfiction for "Lisa's Shoe."
Winner, 2002 J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award for Deep Water. The citation states:
Jacques Leslie’s work in progress about dams around the world persuasively argues that water will be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th: an increasingly scarce but crucial natural resource that is ‘the prize’ on a global battlefield. It’s a struggle that involves every possible issue— economic globalization, international politics, the clash of cultures, global warming, agricultural policy and conservation. Through the personal and professional experiences of an Indian activist, an American anthropologist, and [an Australian river manager], Leslie explores and elucidates this complex material and makes it intelligible in elegant, beautiful prose.
Deep Water named one of the top science books of the year by Discover Magazine
Deep Water named finalist for Northern California Book Award
Finalist, 2001 John B. Oakes Award in Distinguished Environmental Journalism for "Running Dry: What Happens When the World No Longer Has Enough Freshwater?" published in Harper's Magazine, July 2000.
“Running Dry” selected for The Best American Science Writing 2001, Ecco Press.
The Mark named "one of the top censored books of 1995" by the 1996 Project Censored Yearbook.
Pulitzer Prize nomination, Los Angeles Times, for foreign correspondence (India), 1975.
Winner, Sigma Delta Chi Distinguished Service Award for best newspaper foreign correspondence (Vietnam), 1973.
Winner, Overseas Press Club citation, 1973, "for incisive, consistently well-researched coverage of Vietnam and the Vietcong."
Pulitzer Prize Nomination, Los Angeles Times, for foreign correspondence (Vietnam), 1973.