Acclaimed Writer, Farmer Wendell Berry Dies at 92 in Kentucky

Wendell Berry, the acclaimed writer, farmer, and environmentalist, died at age 92 on Monday, August 31, 2026, at his home in Port Royal, Kentucky.

Berry was a prolific novelist, poet, and essayist whose writings focused on agriculture, small family farms, food, and community. He was a trenchant critic of industrialization and "Big Ag," the sprawling collection of giant farming corporations. Berry's principal influence was on environmental studies and agriculture, but his work also touched on conservation, community, and belonging, gaining fans in other fields, including religion.

Norman Wirzba, professor of theology, ecology, and rural life at Duke Divinity School, stated Berry helped understand that preservation of land is inseparable from preservation of communities. Berry left academia to farm and write in his home county of Henry, Kentucky, often using pencil and paper in an old family cabin. His novels are set in the fictional 20th-century Kentucky town of Port William.

One of his best-known works is the 1977 essay collection "The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture," where he stressed that the true measure of agriculture is not the sophistication of its equipment, the size of its income, or even the statistics of its productivity, but the good health of the land. Berry's daughter, Mary Berry, confirmed his passing.

He was honored with the Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion in 2013 and was a recipient of the 2010 National Humanities Medal. His family continues his mission through the Berry Center, which advocates for farmers and rural vitality in Kentucky.