Congratulations to Ann Fisher-Wirth for being appointed Poet Laureate of Mississippi! Here is a quick write-up by the Mississippi Arts Commission about Ann’s appointment. “The Mississippi Arts Commission is pleased to announce that Governor Tate Reeves has appointed accomplished poet Ann Fisher-Wirth of Oxford, Miss., as Mississippi’s Poet Laureate. Serving...
Congratulations to BEI emeritus fellow Pam Uschuk on the reissue of BLOOD FLOWER her collection of poems reissued by Red Hen Press. Here is a note about it and the importance of supporting small presses written by Pam. “Save this date, my friends. I am happy to announce the pub...
Join us in congratulating BEI emeritus fellow Alexis Lathem on the forthcoming “Lambs in Winter: Sketches of a Vermont Life Through Seasons of Change” You can read more and preorder a copy here:
Congratulations on another accolade and accomplishment by BEI Senior Fellow Patricia Spears Jones! We are proud! #BEI
This is an article published by BEI emeritus fellow Tom Montgomery Fate. It is from a few weeks ago, but it raises a rather interesting point about the news and our relationship with it (especially during these times) #BEI
We are proud of BEI fellow Amanda, who works in the courthouse with Judge Dugan and protested outside yesterday. We must ensure due process for everyone, or no one is truly free. Protest=Patriotism
“Greed in this century is not a deadly sin — it’s a business plan.” Read #BEI Emeritus Fellow Brenda Peterson’s “Pathology of Privilege: Trump as Once and Future King” Photo by Tabrez Syed on Unsplash
Join us in congratulating Black Earth Institute Fellow Orchid Tierney, who co-edited ‘The Routledge Companion to Ecopoetics’, a volume that offers “broad overviews engaging fields such as biosemiosis, kinship praxis, and philosophical approaches” in the conversation on Ecology.
“When I read a poem of such power, articulation, and image-making, I close the book thinking the writer had no other choice; the poem came into the world out of a voracious need.” Read and listen here – ‘Playback’ by #BlackEarthInstitute Fellow Lauren Camp on The Slowdown.
BEI fellows Ann Fisher-Wirth and Laura-Gray Street are the editors for “Attached to the Living World,” a new ecopoetry anthology. There are many friends and fellows of the BEI in the Anthology, including Nickole Brown, Lauren Camp, Erin Hollowell, and Petra Kuppers. This is a major and beautiful project that...
This story is excerpted from the new novel, Railroad Girl by #BlackEarthInstitute Emeritus Fellow Brenda Peterson. It was Selected as an Editor’s Choice in Cutthroat Literary Journal, Arizona. read CODE TALKERS here Photo by Joseph Corl on Unsplash
Join us in congratulating BEI fellows Ann Fisher-Wirth and Laura-Gray Street on being the editors for “Attached to the Living World,” a new ecopoetry anthology. This is a major project that they have worked hard on for some time. It is also needed now more than ever. Click this link...
Congratulations to Laura-Gray Street for the forthcoming “Just Labor: Poems” (March 27), which you can order with the link now and will also be available on March 27 at AWP (booth 1118) “In Just Labor, Laura-Gray Street explores the often-overlooked role of women and femininity in the historical struggle for dignity...
An interesting perspective on the unraveling around us. Read BEI Emeritus Fellow Melissa Tuckey’s substack post about Revelation. “If we read Revelations as allegory, the lesson is not to trust people who do bad things in the name of Jesus. Those who know Christ, should be able to recognize a...
Listen or read this apropos poem by BEI Emeritus Fellow Pamela Uschuk– Prayer Against Extinction. It is a much-needed alternative to yesterday’s horror, a poem that gives us hope and holy.
This issue is “Careful/Care-full Collaboration.” “Creative collaboration is an opportunity to summon and practice ways of being in the world and with each other that challenge myths of exceptional individualism as constructed within colonial and capitalist contexts.” Click this link for more information and the Submittable portal to submit your...
Virtually on February 27, 2025, at 8 P.M. CT BEI fellow Maria Hamilton Abegunde will be a panelist at the Obsidian Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora for a Town Hall Discussion on the Process of making witness-based art in preparation for the upcoming issue “VRY PRSNT BLK: The...
BEI Senior Fellow Patricia Jones is the New York State Poet. She wrote this essay for a fellowship she received from the Academy of American Poets, and it is an excellent reflection on Democracy, language, community, the weird Mr. Whitman, and the future we live in. This is a truly...
Check out BEI fellow Matty Layne Glasgow at The Poetry Vlog (TPV) read from his book Deciduous Qween (Red Hen Press, 2019). Matty also leads a discussion on current Utah legislation targeting the queer community, navigating politically different environments as a queer writer, and coping mechanisms via pop culture. Click...
Congratulations to BEI Emeritus fellow Lauren Mukamal Camp for receiving the 2025 Pearl S. Buck Writer in Residence at Randolph College. In a masterclass she taught while there, she advised young undergraduate writers, “Trust yourself. Sound like yourself. Be patient. Explore. I want them to know there is nothing better,...
Here is the Kickstarter for BEI fellow Gerald Coleman to help publish his latest collection of poems & essays entitled “Incendiary.” Here is a bit more about the project in his own words: “This kickstarter is being launched to publish my latest collection of poems & essays entitled, “Incendiary.” Here’s...
Join BEI fellow Mita Mahato on Jan. 28, 2025, at 7 p.m. EST for a remote presentation on her new piece, Arctic Play. Click here for more info Mita Mahato is a comics artist and poet who assembles her panels and pages with cut and collaged papers in poetic experiments that...
Click the link below for an interactive PDF with pictures of the readers and their work and a YouTube Live Link to watch the reading on Tuesday, January 21st, at 7 p.m. Central Time. Interactive PDF Shaping Destiny Reading Series Poster
Congratulations to Abegunde, a BEI fellow who recently published work in three new texts: “Womb Songs,” for which she was the commissioned poet (nine new poems) for a community exhibition; Chapter 13: “Conjuring Transformation: The Magic Is in the Process,” the text explores “a broad range of contemplative practices and...
Read the Pushcart-nominated piece “The Deer of Kaibab” by Mackenzie Sanders to revel in the way she writes remarkably about the creatures we co-exist with, who are subject to pollution in the only places they know. Art by Anna Krasteleva
“Can anything save us except the old abstractions: morality, courage, kindness, beauty, and love, not save us exactly, make more bearable whatever we have left?” –Margot Wizansky – – After this election, we must actively ask ourselves and each other what we can do in the after we now live...
“Christopher Isherwood’s life and writing remind us that culture wars begin with culture, but they end with people.” Read Jamie Carr’s meditation on Christopher Isherwood’s “Cabaret,” a piece about the rise of the Nazis in Germany. It was later adapted for theatre and speaks to power, accountability, fascism, culture, tolerance,...
Join us in congratulating BEI fellow Mita Mahato on publishing “Arctic Play” (published by The 3rd Thing Press, October 2024) Jasmine Elizabeth Smith (also a BEI fellow) had this to say about “Arctic Play,” “Mahato brilliantly lurches her readers between the sublime and the unsightly, longing and loss, activism and...
Read Black Earth Emeritus Fellow Brenda Peterson’s interesting and eerie tie to Hurricane Milton. Reversing and raising awareness of the climate crisis and the future of all living creatures is a cornerstone of BEI’s mission. “When Hurricane Milton made landfall on Florida’s Siesta Key, my brother‑` who had evacuated with...
Austin Smith, a Black Earth Emeritus Fellow, is a member of the Jones Lecturers at Stanford University. We have highlighted the “Dear Stanford Letters,” a series of letters that give voice to the firing of 23 Lecturers, including Austin. This letter, written by Austin, is a letter to his former...
Listen to BEI fellow Marjory Wentworth’s conversation about her time as the Poet Laureate of South Carolina, Gov. Niki Haley, living in Springfield, Ohio, and reading from her new book “One River, One Boat” with WYSO’s Book Nook. Listen here: You can also purchase a copy of Marjory’s “One River,...
TELLING IMMIGRANT STORIES BECAUSE HATEFUL RHETORIC HAS CONSEQUENCES The BEI stands with those who are treated as political pawns in a game of hate and vitriol. The former President and Senator J.D. Vance have wrongly accused Haitian Immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, of old tropes— casting racist beliefs and hate into...
Join Black Earth Institute Fellows Jacqueline Johnson, Mariana McDonald, and Melissa Tuckey on October 1st at 7 P.M. EST for a reading celebrating the late Reuben Jackson (1956–2024). The reading will be of Reuben’s newly released book of poems, “My Specific Awe and Wonder,” from Rootstock Publishing. Reuben was a...
As the gyre widens and the world turns and turns at an ever-confusing and violent pace, the humanities now have more purpose than ever. Some of those entrusted to protect and share such a beautiful and raw power seem to embrace a world where only a select few can teach...
The West has always been and continues to be a place of clashes and liminality. It exists as both an idea and an environment that records and reflects what we are and what was before. When thinking of the West, it is easy to think of Cowboys and dusty sunsets,...
Read Kevin Koch’s excerpt from his new book “Midwest Bedrock: The Search for the Soul of Nature in America’s Heartland.” In this excerpt, he views the ancient city of Cahokia from atop Monks Mound, reflecting on the past, present, and future. https://swander.substack.com/p/cahokia-the-view-from-the-center
Join CUTTHROAT, A JOURNAL OF THE ARTS, on April 14th for a Zoom reading by an incredible group. Carolyn Forché, J. Drew Lanham, Jesse Tsinijinnie Maloney, and Peggy Shumaker will promote CT28, “NATURE OF NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE.” Cutthroat will also be honoring Rainy Dawn Ortiz, Luis Alberto Urrea, Joy...
“Our next issue invites you to consider and reimagine all things West. Send us your prose, poetry, and visual art that conceives of the West beyond its conventional and colonialized framework to help us decenter traditional subjects and propagandized histories of this region.” Link to submit below: https://aboutplacejournal.org/submissions/ Editors: Jasmine...
Writers and poets from the latest issue of About Place Journal (The More-Than-Human World) gathered on Zoom on January 11 to read their work from the issue. Over 20 additional participants connected from different corners of the world to witness the magic of storytelling and poetic expression. Here is a...
Join us for The More-Than-Human World Reading Series! Thursday, January 11, 2024 at 7 pm CDT Join us in real time on Zoom (registration required) or watch live on YouTube. Click on a participant’s name or photo to view their work.
Join us for the About Place Journal reading of The More-Than-Human World Issue on January 11th at 7 pm CDT. Meeting links, participants and readings at aboutplacejournal.org/reading-series/more-than-human-world-reading-series/
There is talk of the possibility of a ceasefire and hostage exchange. The level of violence now is in no way equal, and bombing whole areas of Gaza with possibly 20,000 dead, the vast majority of which are civilians, is genocidal. Yet the brutal violence on Oct 7 cannot be...
What could be a more clear expression of genocide? Violence against Palestinians is many decades old and is now clear genocide. Ceasefire now!
Congratulations to Brenda Peterson on her new Mystery Novel! Stiletto is set in rainy Seattle and follows the aftermath of the murder of a Big Pharma CEO and the slew of suspects that emerge in the wake of the brutal stabbing. Congratulations to BEI Emeritus Fellow Brenda Peterson! Read more...
BEl current fellow, Matty Layne Glasgow, is now a new fellow at Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah. During his fellowship, he will continue and deepen his work on the vanishing Great Salt Lake and the Bear River that feeds the lake. He will trace how usage over...
Stop Genocide and Ceasefire. Genocide is not the way to peace, and the next step is to find a real form of peace. Whether one or two states, a ceasefire, and then the next small steps along with hostage release. The above photo shows members of the Jewish Voice...
Brittney Corrigan, “Suffer” Annie Wenstrup, “From Here” Minna Jain, “A River is a Long Soul” Sarah McCartt-Jackson, “Bluegrass” Jennifer K. Sweeney, “California Black Bear” Vivian Faith Prescott, “How to Yoik the Stikine River”
The new issue of About Place was born from an abiding love for plants and animals and insects, for all creatures, so to speak, great and small. But, more importantly, the work gathered here rejects the notion of treating humans as separate and superior, which is how the vast majority...
The following article was originally published on ourtimepress.com It looks like Brooklyn is the literary capital of New York State. The New York State Writers Institute has honored two nationally acclaimed Black women writers living in Brooklyn. Award-winning novelist and young adult author Jacqueline Woodson has been named the State...
In an interview with Dick Cates, the discussion revolves around the Driftless area and Lowery Creek’s significance in terms of watershed health and farming methods. The Driftless area’s distinct topography, unaffected by glaciers, has resulted in unique watersheds. Lowery Creek, running through Cates Family Farm, suffered from poor farming practices...
In a recent interview with poet, activist, and historian Peter Neil Carroll, his life and creative journey were explored. Carroll, renowned for his poetry and insightful writings on American history and culture, discussed his transition from historian to poet. His works, such as “The Free and the Unfree” and “Famous...
A poem featured in the About Place Journal by Rajiv Mohabir. The poem “Franciscana” reflects on the irony of the Pontoporia blainvillei dolphin, named after Franciscan friars, the missionaries that brought the bible, disease and death, but treated callously by people. Years later the dolphins were treated poorly. The poem...
Poetry by Jennifer Martelli featured in the latest issue of the About Place Journal. Temperature-dependent sex determination does exist, and Jennifer shows us how croc mom’s make sure that girls will be chosen. Temperature-dependent Sex Determination after Leonora Carrington’s “How Doth the Little Crocodile” The day the waters rose from...
A beautiful poem by Annie Woodford, featured in the About Place Journal. The poem portrays a final walk with an arthritic dog by a river. Like falling leaves and bugs on the water, nature’s imagery is evocative. The dog’s affinity for water draws parallels to life. Despite the pain, the...
Celina Mcmanus is an educator and poet from the Smokey Mountains. In this fictional piece, Celina’s character talks about seeing their deceased fathers’ eyes in a frog they found in the river. The connection draws memories back on characteristics of their father. This piece also happens in a dystopian world,...
Ann Fisher-Wirth’s interview with the owner of the Quapaw Canoe Company, John Ruskey, in the newest issue of the About Place Journal. In this interview, John explains why he moved and started his own business in Clarksdale, in depth detail about how his canoes are built and the experience on...
Poetry by Juan Carlos Galeano. This poem is the About Place Journals feature of the day. Juan writes about Amazonia and the beauty that goes beyond what we can see. Amazónicas: Considering the River’s Feelings Para quienes no la pueden conocer, Amazonia se presenta como lo que no es.To those...
Artwork by Robin Young is featured in the About Place Journal’s newest issue. Robin’s art focuses on a collage style, from postcard artwork to life size 3D sculptures, she always captures the audience’s attention. Little Fishes Downstream
Minna Jain’s featured nonfiction story in the latest issue of the About Place Journal. The twists and turns in Minneapolis in the 3rd Precinct following George Floyd’s murder. A River is a Long Soul 3rd Precinct, South Minneapolis, May 28, 2020 We walk past the State Patrol and National...
A feature from the newest issue of the About Place Journal: SARAH MCCARTT-JACKSON Bluegrass A fiddle takes you all the way to the edges of your skin like a sapling that clings to a cliff. It is a mountain road ditch filled with flowering weeds, my tongue on the...
Jacqueline Johnson interviews master quilter Cathy Fussell in the newest issue of the About Place Journal. JACQUELINE JOHNSON To Follow a Curve in the River: Interview with Cathy Fussell Master quilter Cathy Fussell is known nationally for her map quilts, as well as being the creator of the Michelle Obama...
From Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices, a story by Aidan Yoder. A Planted Tree: A Palestinian Act of Resistance by Aidan Yoder What would it be like to have to fight in court for over 30 years for the right to stay on your land which has been in your...
This was reviewed by Michael Hettich in Terrain.org. Refugee: Poems by Pamela Uschuk Red Hen Press | 2022 | 104 pages In this time of acrimony and push-button polemics, it is a rare pleasure to discover a writer whose politically engaged poetry is vividly alive to the nuances evoked by...
This review by Michael Tidemann was originally published in Des Moines Register. Book review: Memoir redefines meaning of home “The Long Way Home,” a memoir about how travel eventually brings us home, is the April featured selection for Writers and Writing. Author Tom Montgomery Fate is a native of Maquoketa...
On March 9th, our BEI family presented with Cutthroat Journal at the AWP Writer’s Convention. We’ve tracked down the live stream footage from the event, and wanted to share it with all of you! We’ve attached a link to the video, as well as a timestamp marking for when everyone...
BEI + Cutthroat @ CAM / AWP 2:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m., Thursday 3/9/23 Join The Black Earth Institute at Common AREA on March 9th at 2:30 pm for an incredible reading with 17 authors, artists, and scholars. BEI readers, along with special guests from Cutthroat, are coming from across...
This post was originally featured on Facebook.com. Our monthly poetry series continues with the February 2023 edition, which has the theme “Remembering How History Repeats Itself.” This month we will also have a featured poet, Teresa Dzieglewicz, whose first book is forthcoming this spring. Titled Something Small of How To...
Join us in Congratulating Ann Fisher-Wirth on her momentous achievement! Senator John Horhn and Senator Nicole Boyd on Thursday, February 2, 2023, presented Dr. Ann Fisher-Wirth of Oxford, with Senate Resolution 21, for being named a recipient of the 2023 Governor’s Arts Award for Excellence in Literature & Poetry. The...
This article was originally published by The University of Michigan. During Ypsilanti’s first Pride Festival in 2017, Petra Kuppers set up a booth called the “QueerCrip Pussy Poets’ Rest Stop.” Kuppers and her wife, poet and dancer Stephanie Heit, offered those attending a place to relax and explore poetry by...
Squatters on Red Earth A peaceful encounter in the midst of the U.S. white settler land grab. Squatters on Red Earth explores the positive relationship that the Amana Colonies have had with the Meskwaki Indigenous people. The Amana Inspirationists fled religious persecution in their homeland in Germany only to become part...
To read Brenda’s original publication, click here. “Why write for children?” a friend asked me rather dismissively when she heard I was mulling over writing a book for kids. “Isn’t that like dumbing down?” “Because adults still don’t get it,” I answered, keeping my voice low so as not to...
To pre-order Gerald L. Coleman’s newest collection, click here! Get ready for a space-faring archaeologist who uncovers an ancient terror on a desolate moon, an immortal who hunts infernal creatures, a celestial being who lands on a polluted planet-destroyed by climate change-to render judgement on its inhabitants, and much more....
To pre-order Ann Fisher-Wirth’s newest collection, click here. In this extraordinary collection, Ann Fisher-Wirth looks levelly at mortality, grief, and memory, and reckons with what it is to be urgently alive, bringing her incisive nuance to subjects ranging from the loss of a beloved sister to Mississippi’s Parchman Penitentiary to...
We are proud to unveil our 2022 pushcart nominations from the About Place Journal Issue Center of Gravity. These nominations were selected by the issue’s editors, Gerald L. Coleman, Orchid Tierney, and Marjory Wentworth. Join us in congratulating Cristina Correa, Kari Gunter-Seymour, and M. Brett Gaffney Cristina Correa, “The...
This article was originally published by Orion Magazine. Orion poetry editor Camille Dungy and friends are back at it, bringing you recommendations on some of the best recent books on animals, trees, time, refugees, place, bewilderment, grief, and Babyn Yar. ANN FISHER-WIRTH RECOMMENDS: REFUGEE by Pamela Uschuk The first line of Pamela Uschuk’s extraordinary...
We are incredibly excited to launch the next About Place Issue: “Center of Gravity.” We think this issue demonstrates justice as the center of gravity and resistance as getting us there. We hope you will join us in celebrating these artists’ eclectic, daring interpretations of the theme. Let us know...
This event was originally published by PrairiePathBooks.com. Prairie Path Books 255 Town Square Wheaton, IL, 60189 Thursday, December 8, 2022 @ 6:00 PM- 7:00 PM Meet Literary Local, Tom Montgomery Fate, for a reading, discussion, and signing of his new book, The Long Way Home: Detours and Discoveries. Tom...
It’s Giving Tuesday and the Black Earth Institute needs your support. BEI through the projects of its fellows, its About Place Journal, and the ongoing work of its emeritus fellows and scholar/advisors brings art to bear on promoting social justice, protecting the earth, and honoring an inclusive spirit. We are...
We are proud to unveil our 2022 pushcart nominations from the About Place Journal Issue Navigations: A Place for Peace. These nominations were selected by the issue’s editors, Allison Hedge Coke, Jasmine Elizabeth Smith, Katy Gurin, and Travis Hedge Coke. Join us in congratulating Brandy Nālani McDougall, Cristina Eisenberg, and...
The Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets originally published this poem. I. In the beginning there were no orphans. God created the sky and You lived, because a divine hand saved you from an accident. You lived Though it’s an exaggeration to maintain that he must be an angel. II. In the...