Back in October, Patricia Spears-Jones, BEI Senior Fellow, had an article in Electronic Lit entitled “The Poetry of Black Women Shows Us How to Move Forward”. As we take the time to reflect on the past year, it is important to remember works that we are proud of. Recently, I learned...
Recently, The Boston Globe did an article featuring BEI Emeritus Fellow, Regie Gibson! They discuss Regie’s poetry, style, and making a living as being a poet. Check out the article below written by Cindy Atoji Keene. “I was born in the Delta where the heat is swelter. I am the blues.” — REGIE GIBSON...
Lauren Camp, BEI Senior Fellow, is one of the featured poets with work in the new book of poetry, Missing Persons: Reflections on Dementia. Beatlick Press is happy to announce the launch of their first book dealing with the diseases of dementia, Missing Persons. Included in this volume are poems...
Patricia Spears-Jones, Senior BEI Fellow, was featured in The New Yorker’s “Our Year in Poems”. For the list of the other poems. Here is her poem Seraphim Once a beauty, full figured, beloved And then a fever, sweats, water vomited Until the body gave out. And then, Wings and lyres...
Lauren Camp, BEI Senior Fellow, was asked by Tupelo Press to give some tips about winning the Dorset Prize and completing your manuscript. Lauren won in 2014. Spanish poet Antonio Machado wrote, “… there is no path, paths are made by walking.” In your manuscript, have you dared? Have you...
Austin Smith, BEI Fellow, was recently featured in a New York Times article, “In Recent Poetry Collections, Weapons Made of Words” by Stephanie Burt. The article talks about Austin’s new book of poetry Flyover Country. Copies of Flyover Country can be found here. The quiet rural boys and men of...
Ann Fisher-Wirth, a BEI Senior Fellow, has recently joined the faculty of the Longleaf Writers Conference. She will be leading a poetry workshop along with Brian Turner. Below is information about the Longleaf Writers Conference. The Longleaf Writers Conference @Seaside, Florida (formerly Seaside Writers Conference), is pleased to announce our...
Lauren Camp, Senior BEI Fellow, has a new poem featured in the newest issue of Tar River Poetry edited by Luke Whisnant. Here is Lauren’s Poem “Cow”http://www.tarriverpoetry.com/
Patricia Spears Jones, Senior BEI Fellow, opens the latest issue of the Ocean State Review with two of her original poems. Poem “On Roland Barthe’s Birthday” was inspired by a tweet Wayne Koestenbaum. This is the first time Patricia’s first time being the first work up in a journal.
Liam Heneghan’s book, Beasts at Bedtime: Revealing the Environmental Wisdom in Children’s Literature is one of the books listed in Eco Lit Books list of “The best environmental books we’ve read in 2018”. Congrats Liam! Check out the other books that made it on the list here. For Copies of Beasts...
Metta Sáma, BEI Senior Fellow, is one of the many poets to contribute to the new collection of poetry: Big Energy Poets: Ecopoetry Thinks Climate Changes. Copies of the books can be found here. Contributors include: Stephen Collis, CAConrad, Matthew Cooperman & Aby Kaupang, Adam Dickinson, Suzi F. Garcia, Brenda Hillman, Brenda Iijima,...
Ann Fisher-Wirth, BEI Senior Fellow, Professor, and new author of The Bones of Winter Birds. Ann’s new collection of poetry is published by Terrapin Books, A Poetry Press. The Bones of Winter Birds is a book of belonging and of seeking, ribboned through with the copious steamy heat of the South and...
Dear Friends of Black Earth Institute, We need your support to continue. The Black Earth Institute supports artists and art much needed in our troubled times. Now in our fourteenth year, BEI was founded by my late wife, Patricia Monaghan, and me to have art serve the areas of spirit,...
The Black Earth Institute and the About Place Journal are nominating six pieces to The Pushcart Prize: The Best of Small Presses. Three pieces were nominated from the May 2018 issue of About Place Journal, Rewilding, by editor Tammy Gomez. The other three prices were nominated from the October 2018 issue,...
Poet and BEI Emeritus Fellow, Regie Gibson helped to pay tribute to poet Diana Der Hovanessian. For link to original article. ARLINGTON, Mass. — On the afternoon of November 4, the award-winning late poet Diana Der Hovanessian was feted at the Armenian Cultural Foundation (ACF) by an enthusiastic audience of...
Melissa Tuckey, BEI Emeritus Fellow and co-editor of About Place Journal, recently was featured talking about her book Ghost Fishing: Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology with co-author Camille Dungy. For the original link to the article. Copies of Ghost Fishing can be purchased here. Poets are scribbling and keyboarding away, asking justice...
Listen to Mary Swander, BEI Emeritus Fellow, as she talks about on the issue of farm succession as she visits with Kayte Young for Harvest Public Media in Main Street from Praire Public News. Click here for the link to listen.
Austin Smith’s new book of poetry, Flyover Country, was recently featured in The Washington Post. The article is featured below or for the link to the original. Five New Books Of Poetry Explore the American Experience, For Better or Worse Flyover Country “Flyover Country” (Princeton), by Austin Smith is a marvelous...
Kathleen Sweeney, BEI Emeritus Fellow, had an article published by the Garrison Institute. The article is about Digital Mindfulness. Below is the article, for the link to the original click here. Digital Mindfulness Slow Media in a Fast Media Landscape By Kathleen Sweeney Digital Culture, Digital Media What are we...
Liam Heneghan, BEI Scholar, recently had his work published on AEON. Check out his piece below or on the AEON Website. Liam is professor and chair of environmental science and studies at DePaul University in Chicago. He is a Scholar Advisor at the Black Earth Institute. His latest book, Beasts at...
Austin Smith has been receiving a lot of attention for his new book of poetry, Flyover Country. A new collection about violence and the rural Midwest from a poet whose first book was hailed as “memorable” (Stephen Burt, Yale Review) and “impressive” (Chicago Tribune). Recently, The Michigan Daily wrote this article about...
Anne M Carson recently wrote a review of Mississippi, poetry by Ann Fisher-Worth (BEI Emeritus Fellow) and photographs by Maude Schuyler Clay. Below is the review, for a link to the original post. Forty-seven paired poems and photographs make up this beautifully realised work. Photographer Maude Schuyler Clay and Poet Ann...
Austin Smith, one of our newest fellows, was featured on NPR’s Here & Now segment November 1st. The interview focused on his newest book of poetry Flyover Country. Austin’s poems challenge misconceptions about the Midwest and what he calls the “carelessness” of drone warfare. Austin discusses Flyover Country with Here...
Ann Fisher-Worth, BEI Emeritus Fellow, faculty, and students gathered together at an event “Itimanupoli” to read poetry by Native American authors. “Itimanupoli” is the Choctaw word meaning “to converse”. The event was organized by Caroline Wigginton, associate professor of English and director of undergraduate studies for the department, as a way...
Recently Liam Heneghan, BEI Scholar, was reviewed in a reader’s blog. Liam loves the fact he is able to connect with readers. Below is the post written by sunnyjimmy about Beasts at Bedtime. “You will know what it is to have been wild, and you will know what it is to...
Recently, Patricia Spears Jones, BEI Emeritus Fellow, was featured in an article in Poets & Writers about “Black Feminist Poets and the death of Tony Hoagland”. “We need to think about power just a bit differently. What happens when we have that power — when our ideas, our programs, our voices are...
Liam Heneghan, one of BEI’s Senior Resident Advisors, recently had an article written about him for TechNews. Here is part of the article: “An ecosystem ecologist at DePaul University, as well as the co-director for DePaul University’s Institute for Nature and Culture, Liam Heneghan presented as a guest speaker at...
Lauren Camp released her fourth book Turquoise Door: Finding Mabel Dodge Luhan in New Mexico. With the release of this book, Lauren has a slew of events planned and recently did a reading at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House to kick them off. The Taos News wrote this article to...
Roberta Hill’s, poet and BEI Emeritus Fellow, poem “Philadelphia Flowers” is going to be discussed by a panel as well as drawing on their experiences. The panelists will discuss it at the “Cultural Sustainability and the Pursuit of Community” Event. In the cubbyhole entrance to Cornell and Son, a woman...
Every year, the Black Earth Institute invites current and emeritus fellows, and scholars to travel from all across the country to come here at Brigit Rest for a 3 day intensive. The 2018 Retreat was one of connection, inspiration, and testy Wisconsin weather. This was the first retreat for our...
Recently at Ryerson Woods, the Dear Earth Event attempted to gain interested in the natural world, especially from younger children. Guests were invited to learn about the natural world and what humans can do to preserve it. There were fun activities such as roasting marshmallows, painting pumpkins, and viewing all of...
Recently, Linda Hogan‘s book People of the Whale was featured in the New York Times in the Books for Left-Brained Readers section! Linda is a BEI Emeritus Fellow and highly published author. “Pieces of magic also surface in Linda Hogan’s evocative and largely realistic “People of the Whale.” The book follows...
Recently, Luther College in Iowa hosted its fifth biennial a writers festival. Debra Marquart, BEI Emeritus fellow and professor of English was one of the featured writers at the festival. Check here for the article written by Kelao Charmaine Neumbo. “The Writers Festival kicked off with a reading by one of this...
The Black Earth Institute is proud to announce the newest issue from About Place Journal: Roots + Resistance is officially available! BEI publishes the literary journal dedicated to re-forging the links between art and spirit, earth and society. The About Place Journal publishes twice a year and accepts open admissions for each...
Brenda Peterson, a BEI Emeritus Fellow, has recently released a new book- Wild Orca: The Oldest, Wisest Whale in the World. The book was written by Brenda and illustrated by Wendell Minor. A picture book homage to Granny, the world’s oldest known orca, who lived to be 105 years old! For...
Lauren Camp, one of Black Earth Institute’s Emeritus Fellows and four time published poet, has recently released her fourth collection of poetry: Turquoise Door: Finding Mabel Dodge Luhan in New Mexico. Recently, Entropy released a rave review of Lauren’s newest work. For copies of Turquoise Door . “In June 2013, poet...
Richard Cambridge, one of BEI Emeritus Fellows, recently reviewed Extreme: An Anthology of Social and Environmental Justice. For a limited time, individuals can order Extreme for a promotional rate- only $15! Follow the link for details. Please continue reading for the complete review of Extreme by Richard Cambridge. HARD RAIN...
Austin Smith is one of BEI’s newest fellows and is also now a published poet. His collection of poetry, Flyover Country Poems is being released on September 25, 2018! The collection is about violence: The violence we do to the land, to animals, to refugees, to the people of distant...
Melissa Tuckey’s, Poet and BEI Emeritus Fellow, New York exhibit has been attracting pedestrians as they walk by LaGuardia Place and West 3rd Street. The Washington Square News, NYU’s independent student newspaper recently wrote a great review about the experience of seeing the poems, fishing net, and plants in the the...
Lauren Camp, a BEI Emeritus Fellow and poet, released a new novel entitled Turquoise Door: Finding Mabel Dodge Luhan in New Mexico. This is Camp’s fourth book of poetry to be published. Turquoise Door brings the contemporary realities of the Southwest into conversation with history. These collections introduces readers to...
BEI Emeritus Fellow Melissa Tuckey’s Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology will be displayed at the Kimmel Windows Gallery. It will be available for 24-Hour Viewing from September 10, 2018 – November 1, 2018. There will be an opening reception on September 10th from 5-7pm, which will feature readings and a...
On August 24th, 2018 BEI Resident Scholar Advisor Liam Heneghan interviewed on WBEZ’s Worldview to discuss his book Beasts at Bedtime: Revealing the Environmental Wisdom in Children’s Literature. Liam Heneghan interviewed on WBEZ’s Worldview Copies of the book are also available at: https://www.amazon.com/Beasts-Bedtime-Environmental-Childrens-Literature/dp/022643138X or http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo25153600.html
BEI Fellow Pam Uschuk, editor-in-chief of Cutthroat, is seeking submissions until October 1 for an anthology of contemporary Chicanx writing. Editors of the book include Luis Alberto Urrea, Uschuk, Matt Mendez, Beth Alvarado, and William Pitt Root. “Our goal is to celebrate the great body of poetry and prose written by...
A massive sculpture will soon appear on the Lake Michigan shoreline between Manitowoc and Two Rivers. Spirit of the Rivers, a tribute to the Woodland Indians of the Upper Great Lakes, consists of three 10-foot-high human figures and a 20-foot birch bark canoe in bronze. Created by sculptor R.T. “Skip” Wallen,...
We are seeking a part-time Administrative Intern to facilitate the work of BEI and its scholars and fellows. The base of operations for this position is Brigit Rest (pictured), a home and farm located just west of Madison, WI. About the Position: – 20 hours / week; at least half...
BEI Emeritus Fellow Ann Fisher-Wirth recently published Mississippi, a collection of her poems with photos by Maude Schuyler Clay. This review from Jacqueline Knirnschild at BURNAWAY describes the collaboration process between poet and photographer. Knirnschild also addresses the book’s effect and its implications: “With such a divisive political climate, we need empathy...
Prayer (by BEI Fellow Ann Fisher-Wirth; published in Vox Populi on June 19, 2018) Let the mothers rush toward their babies and wrap their arms around them tight enough to hold back even the sea if it would harm them. Let the anguish melt from the fathers’ eyes. This...
BEI Emeritus Fellow Regie Gibson recently chose four poems out of 138 entries for the Worcester County Poetry Association’s Frank O’Hara Prize. Massachusetts residents accounted for all four winners. Gibson will host a winners’ reading this fall, and the authors will have their work published by the WCPA. Learn more...
Emeritus Fellow Louise Halfe will join Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm to “share…insights on writing as Indigenous women” this Friday, June 8 at 4:30 PM. Rosanna Deerchild will host this event at the Millennium Library. Books will be available for purchase. This is a FREE event! Visit Downtown Winnipeg BIZ for more details.
BEI is ecstatic to announce that Pam Houston won a 2018 Pushcart Prize for her essay, What Has Irony Done for Us Lately, in BEI Fellow Taylor Brorby‘s edited issue of About Place Journal, “Political Landscapes”. Please help us in congratulating Pam and Taylor for this accomplishment. The Pushcart Prize: Best of the...
AgArts Promotes Intersection of Agriculture and Art The intersection of art and agriculture is important to BEI Emeritus Fellow Mary Swander. She says art has been a part of ag for a long time with concepts like folk art. Now she has helped start a new non-profit called AgArts. She...
The designer Tory Burch and her eponymous foundation hosted their first-ever conference in New York at the end of April. BEI Emeritus Fellow Regie Gibson closed the summit by reciting a piece he wrote inspired by all that he saw and heard. Among empowering themes, the Embrace Ambition Summit addressed stereotypes and double...
BEI Fellow Lauren Camp is featured in the Spring 2018 edition of The Indianapolis Review. In addition to displaying her visual artwork, the piece includes an interview that delves deep into the artist’s creative process. Click on ‘Momentum’ for the full story
Yesterday, BEI Scholar Liam Heneghan hosted an event at DePaul University for Beasts at Bedtime: Revealing the Environmental Wisdom in Children’s Literature (University of Chicago Press, 2018). In his new book, scientist (and father) Heneghan examines the environmental underpinnings of children’s stories. Within the entertaining pages of these books lie profound teachings about...
BEI Emeritus Fellow Regie Gibson will be joined by Massachusetts’ best poets at this year’s festival in Salem, MA. Here’s where you can find Gibson over the weekend: Friday, May 4 at 1:15pm Poetry of Place: Boston Hawthorne Hotel, Library Room 18 Washington Square W Boston’s distinctive narrative and always-present past, its cityscape of...
To honor Earth Day this year, Black Earth Institute partnered with Arts + Literature Laboratory to hold a special reading at Olbrich Gardens in Madison, Wisconsin. BEI spotlighted local writers who use their collective voices to create poetry and prose, which advocates for an environmental cause: opposing the Cardinal Hickory Creek...
Emeritus Fellow Linda Hogan will visit Appalachian State University as the final author in Appalachian’s spring 2018 Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writing Series. She will be sharing her voice with two events: Craft Talk: “Intuition: The Inner Voice” and the annual Juanita Tobin Memorial Reading. Kathryn Kirkpatrick, professor in Appalachian’s Department...
In today’s issue of Chicago Tribune, BEI Emeritus Fellow, Tom Montgomery Fate, reviews Climate Church, Climate World (Rowman & Littlefield) by Jim Antal. Beyond the threats that face our planet, Reverend Antal’s book focuses on the current lack of human response to stopping climate change and the social injustices it exacerbates. He...
Adelphi University will prompt 227 students from high schools across Long Island to show their creative side with Poetry Day, celebrating the written word with workshops, an open-mic poetry slam, an awards ceremony, and BEI Fellow Patrica Spears Jones as a keynote speaker. On Wednesday, April 25, students will gather...
Join BEI Emeritus Fellow Annie Finch and yogi Joyce E. Levy February 9 – 16, 2019 for a life-changing week of words and yoga in Guatemala. On the shore of Lake Atitlán at Villa Sumaya Retreat Center & Spa, magical tools for mind, body, heart, will, and spirit, will spiral...
BEI Fellow Todd Davis will have his poetry on display as part of a new exhibition at Gallerie Karon in conjunction with Ashland Gallery Association’s First Friday’s art walk on April 6. Participating galleries and businesses in downtown Ashland, the Railroad District and surrounding areas will stay open until 8...
Current BEI Fellow Lauren Camp will be touring Rochester 14-17 of April. The visit is sponsored by the Mayo Clinic Behavioral Health Research Program Department of Psychiatry and Psychology and University of Minnesota Rochester. Public events during her tour include events such as writing workshops; a poetry reading with local poets;...
Within the entertaining pages of many children’s books lie profound teachings about the natural world that can help children develop an educated and engaged appreciation of the dynamic environment they inhabit. In Beasts at Bedtime: Revealing the Environmental Wisdom in Children’s Literature (University of Chicago Press, 2018), BEI Resident Scholar Advisor, scientist...
The Clarion Ledger named “Mississippi” by BEI Fellow Ann Fisher-Wirth with photographs by Maude Schuyler Clay (Wings Press) #8 on the week of April 1’s best sellers list. “The imperishable quiet at the heart of form.” This quietness, found by contemplating Clay’s photographs, was at the heart of Fisher-Wirth’s poetic process,...
BEI Emeritus Fellow Tom Montgomery Fate had an article published in the March 2018 issue of Christian Century. The self-reflective essay, Spiritual Detours, explores the author’s winter arrival at St. John’s Abbey, a Benedictine monastery, and how prayer can take us by surprise and to places we didn’t intend to go. Enjoy this...
The Tory Burch Foundation will host the first Embracing Ambition Summit, which promises to expand on the Foundation’s mission to provide access to capital, education, and resources to empower women entrepreneurs. BEI Emeritus Fellow Regie Gibson is scheduled as a speaker at the event. He and other leaders, artists and...
One of the most highly-regarded literary magazines in the country has chosen a poem by BEI Fellow Todd Davis as their Poem of the Week. For the past 40 years, The Missouri Review (TMR) has helped shape the contemporary literary scene by publishing the best writers and brightest new voices....
BEI Emeritus Fellow Kathleen Sweeney will use her expertise in combining video, text and social change to collaborate with Director Helen Whitney on her latest work for PBS, “Into the Night: Portraits of Life and Death”. The documentary is a lyrical exploration of mortality, featuring nine men and women of uncommon eloquence...
More than 200 original artworks created by regional talent from around northwest Louisiana will compete for Best in Show in visual and literary categories in an annual competition and exhibition. Critical Mass 6 will inhabit a multi-dimensional and multi-discipline collection of paintings, sketches, photography, sculpture, literature and more. The literary critic will be...
The Hunger Dialogue group is preparing to bring a second Iowa Food Insecurity Summit to Storm Lake, Iowa. The group spurred the first food insecurity summit two years ago, keynoted by BEI Emeritus Fellow and Iowa Poet Laureate Mary Swander. At that inagural event, held at the AEA building, Swander...
Edited by BEI Fellow Melissa Tuckey, Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology is a gathering of poetry at the intersection of culture, social justice, and the environment. This ground-breaking book of poems brings social justice to the forefront of eco-poetry and offers a rich terrain of culturally diverse perspectives. Ghost...
In an unforgettable partnership, BEI Fellow Ann Fisher-Wirth and photographer Maude Schuyler Clay have collaborated on MISSISSIPPI, a gorgeous new book that offers a new spirit of place for their home state. The book features 47 poems by Ann Fisher-Wirth and 47 color photographs by Maude Schuyler Clay that explore the history,...
The South Dakota Symphony Youth Orchestra joins the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra to perform a scene from American Indian composer Jerod Impichcaachaaha’ Tate’s Lowak Shoppala’ (Fire and Light) on Saturday, Feb. 3, at 7:30 p.m., during an evening of music at the Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls. Tate’s Lowak Shoppala’, created as an...
Congratulations to BEI Fellow Ann Fisher-Wirth! The English Department at Ole Miss has named her February Professor of the Month. Don’t miss out on Dr. Fisher-Wirth’s reading from her new book, Mississippi, February 6th at 5:00 pm at Off Square Books.
An article written by Kelly Bastone was published this month in Denver magazine, 5280, about The High Lonesome Ranch in western Colorado. BEI Emeritus Fellow Cristina Eisenberg has conducted research projects at the ranch concerning her work with wolves, specifically, “trophic cascades,” or how wolves and other top predators have a waterfall effect...
On Thursday, February 22, 2018, Iowa Poet Laureate and BEI Emeritus Fellow Mary Swander will read, discuss, and maybe share a banjo tune! Admission is free because this event is funded by Humanities Iowa. Come along from 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm at the Orpheum Theater Center, 220 E. Main St., Marshalltown, IA. If you are...
People’s Music Network Concert: 7:30 to 10 p.m. Jan. 26 First Parish Church 1446 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge. Tickets: $11-$20. The People’s Music Network, a national community of musicians and activists dedicated to making music for positive social change in the world, will kick off its 2018 Winter Gathering with...
Readings and discussion about the immigrant experience are to take place at the Mesa Public Library’s Upstairs Rotunda. The readings will feature Los Alamos poet Jane Lin and BEI Fellow Lauren Camp, both of whose work is anthologized in the new book “Two-Countries – US Daughters & Sons of Immigrant Parents,” edited...
The inaugural Mass Cultural Council Institute will take place on March 17 at the DCU Center in Worcester. Its aim is to connect youths and their peers with city and town leadership from every corner of the Commonwealth. Our youth have tremendous capacity to be a visible and audible part...
BEI Senior Fellow, Annie Finch, will host an online course sharing her poetry composition expertise from Monday February 5 to Friday February 9, 2018. It can be tempting to think of rhythm, meter or form as a container; something outside and separate from a poem. But the best poems sing...