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...

The following article was originally published on yallpolitics.com. The 2023 recipients will be recognized at the 35th Governor’s Arts Awards ceremony on Feb. 2, 2023, at 6 p.m.  This week, the Mississippi Arts Commission (MAC) announced the recipients of the 2023 Governor’s Arts Awards, which are given to individuals and organizations to recognize outstanding...

To donate to this amazing campaign, click here! On November 11th, 2012, Black Earth Institute co-founder Patricia Monaghan died. On this the 10th anniversary of her death, we ask for your support in helping us continue and grow her vision. BEI provides a sanctuary, a magnification of voice and community to artists who seek...

The following collection was originally published by PersimmonTree.org.  Featured BEI poets include Pam Uschuk, Patricia Spears Jones, and Ann Fisher-Wirth. Rejecting Despair: Poems of Lament, Rage, and Resistance by Cynthia Hogue, Poetry Editor We who fought during the era of Second Wave feminism have lived to see our success curtailed,...

To register for this event, click HERE. Thursday, October 27, 2022, 12:00PM to 1:15PM (EDT) ONLINE | Pain and Joy on the Land: A Disability Culture Offering Virtual Two white queer cis women, one woman of size, Petra Kuppers, with yellow glasses, shaved head, pink lipstick, and a black dotted...

This opinion piece was originally published in Grand Folks Herald. Libraries are the last home of democracy in our country; they’re places where all are welcome, services are provided, and books, those wonderful houses of stories, knowledge, and information, are accessible to all. By Taylor Brorby   Last week, while returning...

This podcast was originally found on AgArts.com. Season #2, Episode 39: A Nail Pulling Party Host Mary Swander puts out a call to listeners for critter stories and gives instructions to make a pitch on the website: www. agarts.org. Swander tells the story of Old Order Amish neighbor Abram Yutzy demolishing...

ASLE & AESS in 2023: Portland, Oregon The Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) and The Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences (AESS) are excited to announce that they will hold their next conference jointly in Portland, Oregon on July 9-12, 2023 at the Oregon Convention Center....

This piece was originally found in nationalbook.com. The ten contenders for the National Book Award for Poetry Find The New Yorker’s announcement here. The National Book Foundation announced the Longlist for the 2022 National Book Award for Poetry. The Finalists in all five categories will be revealed on Tuesday, October 4. Three...

This article was originally published by the Albuquerque Journal. Lauren Camp has a way with words. The northern New Mexican poet becomes the state’s second Poet Laureate. “I am humbled and grateful to serve as New Mexico’s second Poet Laureate,” says Camp. “I fell in love with New Mexico 28...

Edited by BEI Senior Fellow, Pamela Uschuk, newly-released THROUGH THE ASH, NEW LEAVES is a 357 page anthology of poetry and prose by over 100 writers that address the Climate Crisis worldwide, published as a collaboration between Black Earth Institute and Cutthroat, a Journal of the Arts.  Contributors include BEI...

Loving and mourning in the kingdom of decay was recorded earlier in the year at a TEDx event at DePaul University. The talk was led by BEI Resident Scholar Advisor Liam Heneghan. According to Liam “The talk is especially meaningful to me because it was prepared and given shortly after...

This post was originally made by AZPBS.org. Interview The Grand Canyon Astronomer in Residence program launched in 2021, offers professional and amateur astronomers, educators, writers, and artists the opportunity to practice and share their discipline under the night sky. Joining Arizona Horizon is poet Lauren Camp, the newest Astronomer in...

This post was originally made by ASLE.org. Judges have announced the winners of the 2022 ASLE Book Awards. The awards, in the categories of ecocriticism and environmental creative writing, have been given biennially to recognize excellence in the field. The 2021 awards were postponed to 2022 due to the pandemic. This year,...

This event was originally published on Annie Finch’s website- AnnieFinch.com. The Dance of Rhythmic Writing: A Weekend Retreat with Annie Finch September 23-25 Vermont   Annie offers online Classes on Matrics Rhythmic Writing regularly in Poetry Witch Community. Please note that Poetry Witch Community is a community of women and...

Brenda's second illustrated book, with master Chinese illustrator, Ed Young, CRANE MAIDEN, is out now from Chin Music Press as a digital book first! Since Ed created his shadow play art on a light table (moon) with paper collage and feather, CRANE MAIDEN, comes gloriously alive on screen. The book...

This post was originally published by KCII Radio. Mary Swander of Kalona was named as a member of the 2022 Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame Class on Monday, August 8th, by the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women. Swander grew up in Carroll, Iowa, and attended the University of...

The Long Way Home: Detours and Discoveries Andrew Taylor-Troutman reviews Tom Montgomery Fate’s new book.   Tom Montgomery Fate Ice Cube Press, 168 pages | Published July 15, 2022 In The Long Way Home, Tom Montgomery Fate has written a profoundly moving travel memoir about his experiences across the United States...

This poem was originally published at Poets.org. Saturnine Patricia Spears Jones for Karen Taylor We cannot feel microbes in the palms of our hands or hear nanoseconds—we can see the laser slice wind. But  how it shaves beards remains mysterious. This talk of science & biologicals & viral crowns   make...

Join us for a reading and discussion with Lauren Camp, a Denver Botanic Gardens Artist in Residence. Camp’s recent work addresses present threats to the environment-shifting climate, increasing drought and wildfires. During her residency, she shifted focus to the ways in which nature recharges the land, triumphs, and has the...

This post was originally found at KevinKochDriftlessLand.net!          “We’re building the new in the shadow of the old,” Keefe Keeley mused as we meandered about the fields and woodlands of the Savanna Institute’s North Farm five miles from Spring Green, Wisconsin. Our walk took us among young...

This podcast was originally found at the AgArts Podcast. Season #2, Episode 33: Taylor Brorby’s Boys and Oil Host Mary Swander interviews Taylor Brorby about his new memoir Boys and Oil (Norton): Growing up Gay in a Fractured Land, about his life in rural North Dakota in the middle of the fracking boom. Brorby discusses how,...

To order tickets for this event, click here. $400.00 4 Sessions: Tuesday, July 12, 19, 26, August 2 6:30-8:30pm ET Patricia Spears Jones Living women writers make work that is at the forefront of innovative poetics that merge with urgent political and social movements. Whether in resistance of patriarchal oppression;...

BEI Resident Scholar Advisor Liam Heneghan had the privilege of presenting with TedTalks. Listen to his phenomenal presentation below!

This poem was originally published in The Ocean State Review.

For information on how to order tickets, click here! Wednesday, July 13, 2022 – 6:00 PM Running Time: 1 hour & 30 minutes Join us for a reading and discussion with Lauren Camp, a Denver Botanic Gardens Artist in Residence. Camp’s recent work addresses present threats to the environment-shifting climate,...

Season #2 Episode #32: Aparajita Sengupta: Rejuvenating a Small Farm in India Through the help of a Cynipid grant, host Mary Swander interviews Fulbright Scholar Aparajita Sengupta who is presently in residence at the College of Agriculture at the University of Kentucky. Sengupta is writing a book about women farmers...

BEI Emeritus Fellow John T. Price has released his new book! It is out NOW and available for purchase! Book Description Drawing inspiration and urgency from the storied Goethe Oak tree at Buchenwald concentration camp–and from the leaf as symbol of all change, growth, and renewal–award-winning essayist John Price explores...

This interview was originally published by CollegeVille Institute. This phenomenal interview features two BEI Emeritus Fellows; Taylor Brorby and Tom Montgomery Fate. Growing up Gay in a Fractured Land An Interview with Taylor Brorby   In Taylor Brorby’s new memoir, Boys and Oil: Growing Up Gay in a Fractured Land...

We are incredibly excited to launch the next About Place Issue: “Navigations: A Place for Peace.” We think this issue speaks to restoring ourselves to the earth and overall healing. We hope you will join us in celebrating these artists’ eclectic, daring interpretations of the theme. Let us know what...

This poem was originally published in The Common Online. By LAUREN CAMP If I won’t remember that I was in Virginia last year without praise of darkness, or the autumn drift I spent in Wisconsin watching a cardinal nip the oak, if I see and forget field thick over field, the...

Tammy Gomez is proud to announce the “Right to Read Community Celebration and ‘Banned Books’ Reading.” The event seeks to bring attention to the books that have been banned across the country. With live music, live readings, and a great cause, why wouldn’t you turn out? The event begins tonight...

How to Make Luck: Writing in Praise of the Ordinary with Lauren Camp (Registration Closed) 11:15 AM – 12:15 PM With so many things to worry over, we need to keep finding joy and celebrating gratitude. This feel-good workshop will help you write in praise of small beauties, large events, or anything...

Season #2 Episode #29: Ask Ruby “Ruby, why do Amish men shave off their mustaches but still have beards? Do the Amish vote? Do they use binoculars? What are their favorite foods? What is Rumspringa? Can the Amish use solar panels? How do they observe Ascension Thursday?” Find answers to...

This post was originally featured in The Association for the Study of Women and Mythology. BEI Alums Brenda Peterson, Annie Finch, and Cristina Eisenberg will be presenting at this phenomenal symposium. Check out more information below! 2022 ASWM SYMPOSIUM  “Hearing the Invisible: Lessons from Sentient Beings and Inter-relational Ecosystems” ASWM...

The Poetry Project is honored to bring together poets, collaborators, and stewards of the avant-garde for our 55th Anniversary Gala in the Sanctuary at St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery, honoring two iconoclastic, beloved, and inspiring poets: Rene Ricard and Patricia Spears Jones.As we celebrate the incredible influence of these writers on downtown culture, the Gala...

BEI Resident Scholar Advisor Cristina Eisenberg was chosen to speak in front of the US Congress during a special hearing on Climate Change. This article was originally posted on the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. AMERICA’S NATURAL SOLUTIONS: THE CLIMATE BENEFITS OF INVESTING IN HEALTHY ECOSYSTEMS Date: Friday,...

BEI Emeritus Fellow Taylor Brorby’s newest book is releasing this June! Now is the perfect time to pick up an early copy of this book that is sure to be phenomenal. To preorder, click the link here. About the Book From a young, gay environmentalist, a searing coming-of-age memoir set...

Host (and BEI Emeritus Fellow) Mary Swander highlights stories of Ukraine from Annette Matjucha-Hovland, a listener in Muscatine, Iowa. Matjucha-Hovland tells how she learned to bake paska and cherry varenysky, traditional Ukrainian foods, from her grandmother, or oma. Swander recounts stories of Amish and Ukrainian grandmothers, then reminds the audience...

Village Books is hosting a conversation between BEI Emeritus Fellow Brenda Peterson and Kip Greenthal. They will be discussing Kip’s first novel, SHOAL WATER, which Kip published at the age of 75. They’ll be talking about the book, writing, and how their long-time writing relationships and communities inspire creativity. Join...

BEI Emeritus Fellow Allison Hedge Coke has an upcoming book of poetry that will be released on March 29th. The poetry collection, Look at This Blue, has already been getting rave reviews, and it is certainly not one to miss it. To order the collection, click here. POETRY BY ALLISON ADELLE...

The Black Earth Institute is seeking 8 new fellows for July 2022–July 2025 The Black Earth Institute is a community of creative, committed artists. Established in 2005, BEI is dedicated to supporting art that re-forges the links between spirit, earth, and society, for art and its makers create the space...

BEI Fellow Jacqueline Johnson brought our attention to a magnificent art gallery created by artist Laura James. We were so enamored by her pieces, that we needed to share her art with you! The gallery, which premiered in New York on March 3rd of this year, has been converted to...

BEI Emeritus Fellow Todd Davis has published his SEVENTH poetry collection, Coffin Honey. You can purchase the publication NOW at this link! Read on to learn more about the collection, and hear its rave reviews! About In Coffin Honey, his seventh book of poems, celebrated poet Todd Davis explores the many forms...

BEI Emeritus Fellow Allison Hedge Coke will be going live on the Carolina Poets Facebook and Youtube pages as a part of their reoccurring reading series. Allison will be joined by fellow poets Montavis Mooring and Sarah Blackman for this hour and a half long reading. Read on for more...

On March 8th, BEI Emeritus Fellow Allison Hedge Coke and BEI Senior Fellow Ann Fisher Wirth will be featured readers at Well-Red, an event seeking to promote the links between poetry and science. Allison and Ann are joining three more poets, Elizabeth Bradfield, Lucille Lang Day, and Alison Hawthorne Deming,...

On March 8th, BEI Fellow Pam Uschuk will be a featured reader at the anniversary reading for PEN International Women Writers Committee. Fourteen Poets from thirteen different countries will be presenting poetry that seeks to uplift and demonstrate the Power of the Voice. In addition to Pamela Uschuk, Ukrainian poet...

Welcome to this year’s Mardi Gras Conference! The 32nd Annual Mardi Gras Conference considers the relationship between environments and communities. The event will feature Black Earth Institute Senior Fellow Ann Fisher-Wirth as a Keynote speaker on February 25th (tomorrow) at noon! How to Attend All panels being held on Zoom...

The Black Earth Institute is seeking 8 new fellows for July 2022–July 2025 The Black Earth Institute is a community of creative, committed artists. Established in 2005, BEI is dedicated to supporting art that re-forges the links between spirit, earth, and society, for art and its makers create the space...

Beyond the Land Ethic: Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Forest Management and Conservation, A Native American Perspective Speaker: Cristina Eisenberg, Graduate Faculty, College of Forestry, OSU Registration is required: Please register here. When: February 16, 2022, 3:30 PM-5:00 PM Where: Via Zoom and 117 Peavy Forest Science Center About the event: Dr....

Allison Hedge Coke will be reading at the 45th Annual Writers Week Conference on February 15th at 4:00 PM. Writers Week is the longest-running, free literary event in California and features the most renowned authors of our day alongside those at the start of promising careers. February 12 and 14-18,...

This article was originally published by UC Riverside: Writers Week. Entering its 45th year, UCR’s Writers Week is the longest-running free literary event in California and features the most renowned authors of our day alongside those at the start of promising careers. The week of events is open to the...

Patricia Spears Jones’ new poem was originally published by VoxPopulisphere.com. Patricia Spears Jones: The Devil’s Wife Explains Broken “45s” “There was a time” James Brown sang, and I want to dance. But that causes the devil to prance upon me, then lash higher his liege around my waist & squeeze...

Allison Hedge Coke was Nominated for ‘Poetry/Science: Lab Coats for House Coats’ and ‘Blue Whale.’ Both pieces were published and nominated by The Scarlet Tanager. Poetry/Science: Lab Coats for House Coats I’ll start out with this statement: Science is a natural way of perceiving and witnessing for the purpose of...

BEI Emeritus Fellow, Marcella Durand has released her newest book To husband is to tender. To order her book, click here. Attached is just one of the many poems you’ll be able to read. two sailors who never spoke is as foreboding as an albatross husband struggles to call home...

REFUGEE is due out May 9, 2022, but will soon be available for pre-order. Black Earth Institute Fellow, Pam Uschuk has howled out six books of poems, including Crazy Love, winner of a 2010 American Book Award, Finding Peaches In The Desert (Tucson/Pima Literaature Award), and her most recent, Blood...

More information on this event can be found here. Starship Somatics: movement sensations for everyone. Session 2 with Petra Kuppers, Tuesday 11 January 2022, 4.30-6pm GMT In this dream journey/movement practice, we will engage our body-mind-spirits as portals, as trance-mobiles that honour pasts and jet us toward speculative futures. Let’s...

  This Essay was originally published on PoetryFoundation.org. Crip Ecologies: Changing Orientation By Petra Kuppers As you go out your door, observe how you navigate the world, and which rhythms shape your journey: smooth stones out to your backyard, or a few steps down a stoop, a long whoosh of...

Seeking work that engages with the essence of sacred spaces/intentional navigations to protect, preserve, & enhance return to Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Native sciences, Indigenous knowledges. Call for Submissions open on January 1, 2022 for our next issue: Navigations: A Place for Peace Editor: Allison Adelle Hedge Coke Assistant Editors: Katy...

Entropy Magazine recently placed Gut Botany on their list of the Best Poetry Books of 2020-2021. You can purchase the collection here. In the meantime, read this fantastic review published in The Massachusetts Review. Gut Botany by Petra Kupper (Wayne State University Press, 2020) You might remember, when the pandemic began,...

Ann Fisher-Wirth was Nominated for ‘Ironing’ published in The Ilanot Review; and was nominated for ‘Val Corsaglia’ and ‘Science and Poetry: Beyond the Radish Seeds’ by Scarlet Tanager Press. Ironing                  I have the whole of time and space to find again the face...

The following piece was originally published in and nominated by Hopper Magazine. Penelope’s Resistance: Finding Roots in the Age of Loneliness by ALEXIS L/ATHEM In those days I spent much of my time alone. I was one of four children and lived with my mother and siblings in a house...

The following poem was originally published in and nominated by Whale Road Review. Where the Front Yard Is You’ll find your way, as we did. One summer we stumbled up a slow dirt road, praising what we saw was brave to vanish. We were new to unrigged mornings; our love...

For 17 years the Black Earth Institute has provided art that gives voice to hope and better ways of living together. Patricia Monaghan, my late wife, and I founded BEI in 2004 to have art focused on social justice, centering protecting the earth, and a broadly defined inclusive spirituality. We...

This article was originally published by LynnBorton.com. “Having those stories that encourage children’s awe [and] curiosity about the world around them, that they know they are having an experience of nature in the city … is going to be pretty important.” ~ Liam Heneghan How do the stories we read...

This article was originally published in Inside Riverside. UC Riverside Distinguished Professor Allison Adelle Hedge Coke has been named a Legacy Fellow by the California Arts Council, awarding her the 2021 Individual Artist Fellowship. Hedge Coke is one of 182 recipients — the first cohort of individual artists the California Arts Council...

Mary Swander, former Iowa Poet Laureate and current executive director of AgArts, a non-profit designed to imagine and promote healthy food systems through the arts, announces the creation of The Great Amish Belt Loop Bad Poetry Contest. The contest is run through “AgArts from Horse & Buggy Land,” a podcast...

To donate to the campaign, click here. On November 11th, 2012, Black Earth Institute co-founder Patricia Monaghan died. On the ninth anniversary of her death, we ask for your support in helping us continue and grow her vision. BEI provides a sanctuary to artists who seek justice, protect the earth, and inclusive...

This poem was originally published in the Journal of the Plague Years. Will we abolish the police department. It’s hard to resolve. The world clings to the takeover of flyover states with financial incentives. Rude laws are laid down with terrible choices. For sale signs go up. People are somehow...

We are nominating artists from our two 2021 issues of About Place Journal for the Pushcart Prize. We published Geographies of Justice and When We Are Lost/How We Are Found. Here are the nominees from When We Are Lost/How We Are Found, selected by editors Amanda Reavey and Claudia Savage. ...

We are nominating artists from our two 2021 issues of About Place Journal for the Pushcart Prize. We published Geographies of Justice and When Are Lost/How We Are Found. First, here are the nominees from Geographies of Justice, selected by editors Alexis Lathem and Richard Cambridge: Claudia F. Saleeby Savage...

On October 9th, current and emeritus Black Earth Institute fellows came together to share their craft. Originally intended as a private gathering, we found ourselves so inspired by the work that we felt it worthy to pass this reading on to you all.  We hope that their words will inspire...