BEI Senior Fellow, Patricia Spears Jones’s poetry series, “ A Lucent Fire,” was recently posted to the African American studies player fm podcast. The audioclip is a 29 minute listen, and full of powerful works of her poetry. On Jones, the podcast series had to say ” Jackson Poetry Prize Winner...
Orion Magazine has recently uploaded a podcast of an emeritus fellow, Brenda Peterson, reading “Wolf Music”. “Wolf Music” is a chapter from her new book called Wolf Nation: The Life, Death, and Return of Wild American Wolves. In this podcast, Peterson contemplates the wonderful harmony and mystery associated with the howl of...
An Emeritus Fellow, Annie Finch, has had her essay “Druidic Difference” shared on the Poetry Foundation’s Website. “Druidic Difference” explores the feelings and sensations of summer, considering the many riches and treasures the season has to offer. Contemplating how other authors might think of summer, Finch explains how summer allows...
BEI Fellow, Lauren Camp recently had her poem “Original Hope” published on Poets.Org. This poem covers the patterns that exist within life and coming to have a patience and understanding of such. Lauren Camp is the author, most recently, of One Hundred Hungers (Tupelo Press, 2016) and The Dailiness (Edwin E....
BEI Senior Fellow, Patricia Spears Jones recently read a poem of hers and it was recorded Live and posted to Youtube. The Link is available to watch through the hyperlink in the previous sentence. Listen to this thoughtful and evocative poem that contemplates the role of the women left behind...
BEI Emeritus Fellow, Tom Montgomery Fate recently published an article in the Chicago Tribune, commemorating Thoreau’s 200th birthday. Commemorating, but also recreating, or reconstructing his biography. This came after writer, and scholar Laura Dassow Walls wrote a piece discussing how Thoreau’s social justice background, and reputation as a hermit in...
BEI Emeritus Fellow, Brenda Peterson recently was featured on the Soundcloud page,”Your Life is a Book,” in a segment entitled “Honorable Hunters Howl Out Against Wolf Hunts.” This spurred from an article Peterson had published in the Huffington Post in 2014. The Opening line of that article reads: “I am...
BEI Senior Fellow, Annie Finch recently had 3 poems of hers published in the prestigious Poetry Magazine, “Insect, Strangers, and, Changing Woman.” These are not Finch’s first poems published within the magazine, however it is still a quite notable feat. Annie Finch is the author or editor of more than twenty...
BEI Fellow, Lauren Camp recently had her poem “Such Bowers of Surrender” published in the Glass Poetry Journal. Lauren Camp is the author of three books, most recently One Hundred Hungers (Tupelo Press), which won the Dorset Prize. More of Lauren’s poetry can be found at her website, http://www.laurencamp.com/. Below, you can...
The Barrow Street Press Poetry Prize is a contest for with a 15k prize for an unpublished book of poems, to be publish with Barrow Street Press. BEI Senior Fellow, and well-renowned poet Patricia Spears jones will be judging this years competition. The Deadline to submit is 6/30. Barrow Street...
BEI Emeritus Fellow Louise Halfe was recently named among the final nominees for the High Plains Book Awards.The awards, organized by the Billings, Mont., public library, honour books from seven northern plains and Rocky Mountain states and the three Prairie provinces. Halfe was nominated in the category of Indigenous and...
As part of National Aboriginal Day, Louse Halfe will be speaking on behalf of The University of Saskatchewan at 9:30am. Following her speech, there will be a Walk for Reconciliation event and traditional games, dances and art at Wanuskewin Heritage Park. The event is a collective effort by the community...
On June 19th, starting at 7:30 LaTasha Diggs will be reading within a group of other poets at the Naropa University Summer Writing Program. The theme of the program is “New Weathers” and focuses on writing in the time of the Anthropocene, the newest and human caused geological era that...
BEI Emeritus Fellow Brenda Peterson was recently interviewed by National Geographic in an article entitled “Why We’re So Divided Over Saving Wolves.” The Article highlights Peterson’s upbringing with hunters, and wildlife managers, those typically thought to be more against wolves, and explains how this upbringing shaped her perspective. Peterson calls the...
This past friday, BEI Fellow Todd Davis read poetry, along with two other poets, and one local author at the Galaxy Bookshop in Hardwick, VT. All four authors were nature writers, with specific skills for capturing the physical and emotional landscapes of an area. The event was free and open...
On Friday, June 23rd, 12pm-1pm, BEI Emeritus Fellow Regie Gibson will be performing Spoken Word Poetry in the lower level of the African Meeting House at the Museum of African History. Gibson will be following a talk by National Park Ranger and education activist, Ryan McNabb. Nelson has performed in...
Brenda Peterson, BEI Emeritus Fellow’s recent book, “Wolf Nation” was recently covered in the “Books” section of the Winnipeg Free Press in an article entitled “Predator and Prey: Wolves Crucial to Ecological Balance, author argues.” A key main point brought up that is threatening wolves are lobbyists and hunters, backed by large...
On June 5th, at 3pm, BEI Emeritus Fellow Regie Gibson participated in a discussion panel on the legacy of slavery in James Madison’s home, Montpelier. The discussion panel coincides with the opening of a new exhibit at the 76-acre home in Richmond Virginia, “The Mere Distinction of Color.” “The exhibit...
On June 10th, BEI Emeritus Fellow LaTasha Diggs and Ana-Maurine Lara, PhD. will host a “Here” workshop on Governors Island, where participants will be encouraged to reflect upon the history of Governors Island, and the landscape itself in order to observe and ponder what happened in the past and what...
Roberta Hill, poet and BEI Emeritus Fellow, is featured in The Winona Daily News, she will be reading poetry at 7pm on June 6th at The Blue Heron Coffee House. Tuesday, June 6th, 7pm. Blue Heron Coffee House 162 W 2nd St, Winona, MN, 55987
Patricia Spears Jones, poet, and BEI Senior Fellow is featured in a Huffington Post Article. Jones gives her acceptance speech in Patterson, NJ, focused on her rise from one of the Patterson Poetry Awards finalists in 2016, to the 2017 Jackson Poetry Prize recipient. The Jackson Poetry Prize, a $50,000...
Call for Submissions Issue Editor: Taylor Brorby Assistant Issue Editors: Noah Davis and Jenna Mertz Open for submissions on June 1, 2017 All submissions are due by August 15, 2017 How to submit and submission guidelines found here POLITICAL LANDSCAPES For this issue of About Place, editor Taylor Brorby seeks prose...
John T. Price, writer and BEI fellow emeritus, is featured in Terrain.org’s Letter to America series. Modeled after a break-up letter, his letter is worth a read. Dear America, I’ve come here to one of my favorite spots of Nebraska prairie to think over our relationship, and I’ve come to a...
On May 21, the Watershed Reading Series will feature three BEI poets in an event titled “Intersections: Writing Where You’re From.” Robin Smith Chapman, Roberta Hill, and Erin Ruzicka Trondson will read work from About Place Journal beginning at 2 pm. Michael McDermott will introduce them. Sunday, May 21, 1 –...
Patricia Spears Jones, poet and BEI Emeritus fellow, has been awarded the prestigious Jackson Poetry Prize. The prize, hosted by Poets & Writers, is awarded “to an American poet of exceptional talent who deserves wider recognition.” The substantial prize is given to provide time and encouragement to write. Poets Henri...
On June 8, LaTasha Diggs, writer, sound artist and BEI Emeritus fellow, will host and moderate an event with artist Joseph Cuillier and Adjua Gargi Nzinga Graves at Pioneer Books in Provo, Utah. The reading and discussion is co-hosted by Pioneer Books and Belladonna* Cooperative. June 8, 7 – 9 pm...
Regie Gibson, poet, educator and BEI Emeritus fellow, will speak at a TEDx event in Natick, Massachusetts. The intimate salon-style event, hosted by the Center for the Arts in Natick, will take place on May 31. May 31, 6:30 – 8:30 pm The Center for the Arts 14 Summer Street Natick, MA
On Thursday, May 18th, Mary Swander, former Poet Laureate of Iowa and BEI Emeritus fellow, will lead a discussion in Lanesboro, MN, on her nonprofit AgArts. AgArts “imagines and promotes healthy food systems through the arts” and is currently seeking Minnesota partners. May 18th, 2 – 4 pm St. Mane...
On April 27, Brenda Peterson spoke about her book Wolf Haven at the Olympia Timberland Library’s annual Celebration of the Species. The event was covered in the Lewis Country Chronicle and ended in a group wolf howl, led by Peterson. “When you do a wolf howl at Wolf Haven, they harmonize...
Christina Eisenberg, the Chief Scientist of Earthwatch Institute and BEI Emeritus fellow, was featured in National Geographic’s Voices for Wildlife blog last week. Dr. Eisenberg is leading a study in partnership with the Blackfoot First Nation, preparing to return bison to tribal lands in the Canadian Rocky Mountains and Alberta’s Waterton Lakes...
As an organization that spans long distances, it is always a pleasure to share when BEI members have paths that cross through their work. The Poetry Project is hosting its first-ever gala to celebrate its 50th anniversary in Manhattan. The gala will honor Anne Waldman for her radical and inspiring contributions to international contemporary...
Todd Davis’s book of poems, Winterkill (Michigan State University Press, 2016), has been named a finalist for the 2016 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year. Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards honor the Best Books from Independent Publishers. Finalists for the Foreword INDIES represent some of the best books...
[Photo Credit: Katlyn Campbell, Iowa State Daily. Debra Marquart reads opening poem at ‘Women in the Arts: A Conversation’ event.] In the spirit of celebrating International Women’s Day and the success of women across the globe, a panel of six prominent women at Iowa State University gathered to discuss the...
Liam Heneghan, an ecologist, philosopher and BEI Scholar, shares his work with an anomalous humanities podcast, My Name is My Name with APS. The interview is 78 minutes; click here to listen. Heneghan is the Chair of DePaul University’s Department of Environmental Science and Studies and Co-Director of the Institute...
Taylor Brorby and Ice Cube press released Coming Alive: Action and Civil Disobedience. Produced in less than a month, Coming Alive, as a call-to-action extended essay by Taylor Brorby, introduced by climate expert Bill McKibben (350.org), along with an afterword by nationally known author / environmental activist Kathleen Dean Moore. Additionally, the project is...
[Photo Credit: C. Finnegan] Brenda Peterson wrote Women and Abortion: “Don’t Give Up Your Power,” a Huffington Post article. Peterson takes you back to pre-patriarchal history to explore concepts of femininity and masculinity; a history that sheds light on society’s current views of abortion. “But abortion is not just about women claiming their feminine...
Mary Swander, a poet laureate from Iowa and BEI Emeritus Fellow, was interviewed for an episode of My Fulfilled Life. Swander speaks about her journey through family farming, addressing social justice, connections to food and her two plays, Vang and Map of My Kingdom. Click here to listen to Mary Swander’s full interview....
Cristina Eisenberg, the Chief Scientist at Earthwatch Institute and a BEI Emeritus fellow, wrote a Huffington Post article about “The Role of Science in the Trump Era.” Eisenberg calls on citizens, both scientists and non-scientists, to take a firm stance in supporting science based research. Eisenberg wrote an additional Huffington Post...
The Boston Public Library held an interview with the creators of Shakespeare to Hiphop and talks about the exhibit, “Shakespeare Unauthorized,” which makes The Bard’s world come alive. The interview includes Regie Gibson, a BEI Emeritus fellow and co-creator of Shakespeare to Hiphop, Marlon Carey, co-creator, and Alison Keslow, the bassist. The trio talk...
Taylor Brorby, a BEI fellow, shares his Letter to America, as a guest editorial on terrain.org. Brorby talks about growing up in the Dakota’s in an economy stimulated by the fossil fuel industry, its environmental impacts and his strive for a better future. Click here to read Taylor Brorby’s Letter...
Ann Fisher-Wirth, a BEI fellow, was invited to write a poem for the state of Mississippi for Imagine Our Parks with Poems Project. Ann’s poem, titled Vicksburg National Military Park, is currently featured here on the Imagine Our Parks with Poems website. To celebrate the National Park Service Centennial, the Academy of...
Taylor Brorby, the co-editor of Fracture was interviewed by Betsy Johnson-Miller for Collegeville Institute and Bearings Online to find out more about the book. Fracture: Essays, Poems, and Stories on Fracking in America (Ice Cube Press, 2016) features the voices of over 50 poets, writers, and journalists on the complex issue of...
Todd Davis, a BEI fellow, was featured on Pittsburgh’s NPR program Prosody on November 19th, which airs every Saturday morning on station WESA 90.5 FM. Listen to the podcast here online or through iTunes. Reading from Winterkill, his most recent book, Davis answered questions from Prosody’s host, Jan Beatty, and discusses his writing process...
GOOD NEWS: Patricia Spears Jones, a BEI Senior Fellow, has been chosen for the Pushcart Prize XLI: Best of the Small Presses 2017. Adding to her accomplishments, The Pushcart Prize series is a highly honored literary project in America. As one of the last surviving literary co-ops from the 60’s and 70’s, hundreds of presses and thousands of writers...
Todd Davis is featured as the artist of the month for Image, a journal of the arts, faith & mystery. Image writes that Todd Davis is, “an ideal observer, he is open to the unexpected—in creation, in the human unconscious, and in the ancient stories of the Christian faith—and he invites us to see the...
Edited by Todd Davis The Black Earth Institute is proud to present our newest issue for About Place Journal! Take a look inside to find … Animals Among Us The editors’ note proclaims: In probing the blurred lines between species and in seeking to recognize the animal as other and the self...
Linda Hogan wrote Why we are Singing for Water- In Front of Men with Guns and Surveillance Helicopters published in YES! Magazine. This vivid article stresses the need for protecting healthy waters and explains the struggles of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation fighting for their treaty rights. Linda’s descriptive writing...
Taylor Brorby, a BEI Fellow, environmentalist and co-editor of the book “Fracture,” spoke at the 2016 North Dakota Library Association’s annual conference in Dickinson, ND. Brorby, “called on librarians to help foster political discussion around all issues, notably environmental, to open more people’s minds.” Brorby talked about fossil fuels vs renewable...
Join us on October 8th, for an evening of poetry, dramatic readings and stories with the Fellows of the Black Earth Institute, hosted by the Arts + Literature Laboratory in Madison, WI. The art presented will speak to both timely and universal issues from the work and changes the fellows...
Michael McDermott, co-founder of the Black Earth Institute relates the history, mission and work of BEI. This video was part of a welcome to a retreat of woman writers hosted at Brigit Rest, center for BEI.
On June 14, 2016, BEI Fellow Ann Fisher-Wirth, spoke in The Big Read: Seat in the Shade Poetry Series at the University of Georgia. A slate of readings, lectures, hands-on events and more will intertwine the work of Robinson Jeffers with the culture and landscape of the South. This was an...
“The late poet and novelist, Jim Harrison (1937-2016) once said: “Poetry, at its best, is the language your soul would speak, if you could teach your soul to speak.” He might easily have been talking about Todd Davis, whose latest collections, In the Kingdom of the Ditch (2013) and Winterkill...
Three Poems By Lauren Camp on June 29, 2016 in Poetry, Spotlight http://www.culturalweekly.com/lauren-camp-three-poems-2/ Lauren Camp, BEI Fellow, works in the confluence of visual, musical and literary worlds. She is the author of three books of poetry, This Business of Wisdom (2010) and The Dailiness (2013), winner of the National Federation...
Check out this new article written by BEI Scholar Cristina Eisenberg, of the Huffington Post, titled “End of an Era for Iconic Denali Wolf Pack?” In 2012, to learn about carnivore ecology in Alaska and celebrate completing my doctorate, my family and I visited Tom Meier, who led Denali National...
On August 28th, Seamus Cashman will do a three hour open air public reading in St Stephen’s Green in central Dublin from 1.30-4.30pm, of poetry and prose works by writers and others represented by memorial busts or with other connections to Stephen’s Green, including Yeats, Joyce, Thomas Kettle, Rabindranath Tagore, Patrick...
Ann Fisher-Wirth will be part of The Big Read: Seat in the Shade Poetry Series, in Athens, Georgia, in June. http://hendershotscoffee.com/event/the-big-read-seat-in-the-shade-poetry-series/
Lauren Camp has a nice interview up at The Strong Letters: https://waleowoade.wordpress.com/2016/03/19/lauren-camp/ and a radio interview at http://www.santaferadiocafe.org/sfradiocafe/2016/04/22/lauren-camp/
Paul Nelson interviews Judith Roche: http://paulenelson.com/2016/05/24/judith-roche-interview/
Melissa Tuckey has two poems in Kenyon Review’s “Literature in the Anthropocene: Nature’s Nature” edition this month: http://www.kenyonreview.org/journal/mayjune-2016/index/
In March 2016, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) proposed delisting the grizzly bear in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in portions of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. As mandated by the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the Service opened a 60-day public comment period. They received a deluged of responses—63,000 in...
Mystified by meter? Or just looking for a new kind of poetic inspiration? This summer Ani will be offering a live, interactive 3-week webinar on Rhythms of Poetry. Learn about the diverse powers of an ancient poetic path for integrating body and spirit, idea and intuition, self and community—and find your own personal rhythmical signature. Class includes...
Metta Sáma’s the year we turned dragon (Portable Press @ Yo-Yo Labs 2016) is the first third of a larger book that follows a group who travel with “Leader” across the globe in order to build a new world, one that is the other side of human, that is dragon....
The same night I first started reading “Fracture,” a new literary anthology about hydraulic fracturing (or “fracking”), I happened to hear Sen. Al Franken (D.-Minn.) on CNN, endorsing the practice as a “viable part of our energy policy.” “Fracking isn’t all bad,” Franken claimed, because, he argued, the production of...
Patricia Spears Jones is a Brooklyn-based poet and author of A Lucent Fire: New and Selected Poems from White Pine Press, which is a 2016 Finalist for the William Carlos Williams Prize from the Poetry Society of America and seven other poetry collections and chapbooks. Her works are anthologized widely...
“There is a way that nature speaks, that land speaks. Most of the time we are simply not patient enough, quiet enough, to pay attention to the story.” — Linda Hogan Chickasaw poet, BEI Emeritus Fellow, novelist, essayist, and environmentalist Linda Hogan will receive the 2016 Henry David Thoreau Prize...
The 2016 Creative Capital Awardees have been announced, and LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs (MFA Writing 2008, California College of the Arts) has been named an awardee in the Literature category for her project Global Studies, a collection of poems and flash prose that mimes the textbook structure to examine the ambiguity of history. According to the Creative Capital...
Greetings, All Recently, the astrologist Rob Breszny wrote his annual year-end letter, which began: In 2016, I invite you to have an improbable quest playing at the edge of your imagination: a heroic task that provokes deep thoughts and noble passions even if it incites smoldering torment . . ....
The Djerassi Resident Artists Program has provided over 2,000 artist residencies, and currently serves approximately 90 artists each year, since 1979 – all free of charge. It is the largest artist residency program in the Western United States and considered among the best in the country. Each year dozens of...
“The Poet’s Market” is for poets looking to be published. It is a resource that contains lists of publishers as well as interviews and advice from widely published poets.
John T Price read this at the Black Earth reading at AWP last summer and brought the house down. Like good satire it hits a tender spot.
Congratulations to current BEI fellow Todd Davis who will be releasing Winterkill, a book of poems, in January/February of 2016. It will likely be available for pre-order in October or November.
“Write A House is delighted to announce ten finalists for the second round our groundbreaking writing residency, in which we renovate a formerly vacant home in Detroit and give it to one talented writer—for keeps. We will celebrate the winner on October 2 at a showcase event featuring the celebrated...
In his article, BEI’s Regie Gibson discusses boredom and a piece of wisdom he received from his teacher in 5th grade: “Mister Gibson, do not make yourself into a shapeless sponge waiting for the world to wet you.” Click here to read article.
The workshop is in environmental life writing, or place-based autobiography, offering the pleasures of discovering the profound embeddedness of the self in its world. It is envisioned as a hybrid, combining readings in literature with a creative writing workshop; participants may write either creative nonfiction essays or prose poems, focusing...
