Wendell Erdman Berry is an American novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer. Born on August 5, 1934, in Henry County, Kentucky, he is closely identified with rural Kentucky, where he developed many of his agrarian themes. These themes are evident in his early essays such as The Gift of Good Land (1981) and The Unsettling of America (1977).

His attention to the culture and economy of rural communities is also reflected in the novels and stories of Port William, including A Place on Earth (1967), Jayber Crow (2000), and That Distant Land (2004). Berry is an elected member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers and has received numerous honors, including the National Humanities Medal, the title of Jefferson Lecturer in 2012, and a 2013 Fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Berry was also named the recipient of the 2013 Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award. On January 28, 2015, he became the first living writer to be inducted into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame.