Wendell Berry: key obituary facts
Is Wendell Berry dead? Yes. Wendell Berry died on August 31, 2026, at age 92.
Cause of death: Wendell Berry's cause of death has not been publicly confirmed.
What was Wendell Berry known for?
He was an American writer.
More about Wendell Berry
Born: 5 August 1934.
Place of birth: Henry County.
Gender: male.
Occupation: poet, novelist, writer, farmer, author, pedagogue, cultural critic, environmentalist.
Nationality: United States.
Employer: City University of New York, University of Kentucky, Stanford University, Georgetown College.
Awards: Guggenheim Fellowship, Four Freedoms Award – Freedom Medal, Poets' Prize, National Humanities Medal, Jefferson Lecture, Helmerich Award, Thomas Merton Award, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Occupations: Poet, farmer, writer, activist, academic.
Genres: Fiction, poetry, essays.
Wendell Berry, the American novelist and essayist whose work as a poet, farmer and cultural critic was closely tied to rural Kentucky, died on August 31, 2026, aged 92.
Born Wendell Erdman Berry in Henry County, Kentucky, on August 5, 1934, he became one of the best-known voices in American agrarian writing. His essays in The Unsettling of America and The Gift of Good Land helped define his concerns with farming, community and the rural economy, while his fiction set in Port William included A Place on Earth, Jayber Crow and That Distant Land.
Berry also taught at institutions including the University of Kentucky, Stanford University, Georgetown College and the City University of New York, and received honors that included the National Humanities Medal, the Jefferson Lecture and a Guggenheim Fellowship.