Boyce Upholt

Between the Levees

Master of Arts in Liberal Studies

Graduated, Spring 2018

Cleveland, MS

Boyce Upholt is a nature critic and the founding editor of Southlands, a forthcoming magazine dedicated to Southern nature and wilderness. Originally from the suburbs of Connecticut, Boyce holds a bachelor’s degree from Haverford College and an MFA in fiction writing from Warren Wilson College. He moved to the Mississippi Delta in 2009, where he discovered a remarkable and largely untamed wilderness corridor along the Mississippi River, inspiring a deep and ongoing exploration of the complex relationship between people and the natural world.

Project: Between the Levees

During his fellowship from 2016 to 2018, Boyce focused on Between the Levees, a nonfiction book project that explores the Mississippi River’s landscape, history, and the environmental consequences of human intervention. Supported by grants from the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area and a fellowship from UC-Berkeley’s Journalism School, Boyce undertook extensive research, including canoeing expeditions from St. Louis to New Orleans and from New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico. His work brought to life the river’s precarious state and encouraged readers to engage more deeply with this vital waterway.

Boyce’s Writing

Boyce’s nonfiction writing has appeared in prestigious publications such as The Atlantic, National Geographic, the Oxford American, and the Virginia Quarterly Review. His work has earned notable honors, including a James Beard Award for investigative journalism and the 2024 Willie Morris Award for Southern Writing for his book The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi. Living in New Orleans, Boyce continues to write and edit, fostering a richer connection between Southern communities and their natural environment.