Department of Media, Communications and Journalism alumnus Mark Arax’s article, “A Kingdom from Dust,” which discusses the agricultural empire of Stewart Resnick, is a James Beard Award finalist and the only double nominee in both the “Feature Reporting” category and the “M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award” category.

Arax’s story first appeared last year in the California Sunday Magazine and has also been named a finalist in the National Magazine Awards. The story is part of Arax’s upcoming book, “The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust across California,” to be released in May by Knopf publishing. Arax’s writings on California and the West have received numerous awards for literary nonfiction.