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...

We are excited to welcome all of our new fellows and this recognition of Ann and all of her important work is great to see! Click here to read the full article.

“Foster’s imaginative work glories in language’s ambiguities, discords, emotions and logic—she allows that imaginative thrall to explore race and gender and political dysfunction. Foster has taken from one work of art and found correspondences in a Harlem apartment, a New Orleans childhood, early morning television commercials, a lover’s sated face,...

Hiraeth Press will be publishing So Ecstasy Can Find You, Elizabeth Cunningham’s third collection of poems, on September 15, 2015.  A book launch will be held at Oblong Books in Rhinebeck, NY on 9/15 at 7:00. Click here for more details on the book launch  Click here to read more about the...

” “The Endangered Species Act, one of the most powerful environmental laws globally, has directly prevented extinction of hundreds of species, such as the bald eagle,” said Cristina Eisenberg, lead scientist at Earthwatch, U.S.A and author of two books on carnivore ecology. “In this era of rapid environmental change and...

“Last Wednesday on a day that represented my break from teaching, I walked about the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.  The day had begun soft, gray, moist, but once I got to the garden around 2 p.m. the sun began to break out a huge bright smile over this very walkable feast...

To see the full list and read about Louise, click here.

Ann will be speaking on a panel as well as presenting work from her ongoing collaborative poetry/photography project Mississippi as part of a plenary session at the Eleventh Biennial Conference of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE), which will be held June 23-27, 2015, at the University of...

The Black Earth Institute is privileged to announce 2015-2018 Fellowship Awards. We are humbled and delighted to have such a wonderful group of artists dedicated to the mission of BEI, to have art serve the causes of spirituality, the earth and social justice. All of these fellows have not only...

“Many contemporary poets use meter and rhyme, and write in traditional forms such as villanelles, but they often do so selectively, for sizzle, like Chinese spices in California cuisine. Annie Finch’s new book, Spells: New and Selected Poems, collects work by a poet who finds in the meters of English...

Cristina Eisenberg, BEI Scholar/Adviser, warns us about the dangers of gutting the Endangered Species Act. This foul action is the leading edge of attacks on the Clean Air Act and what little protection of food safety by the FDA. Darkness descends upon the land. Read it here.

Debra Marquart, BEI Fellow, has a new book of poetry, “Small Buried Things” about items collected by a doctor that had been stuck in people and a long one about the damage to the earth and communities affected by fracking. A North Dakota native, Deb has seen first hand this...

The first, “El Lobo’s Uncertain Future,” discusses the trials and tribulations of the Mexican Grey Wolf’s return to the wild.  March 23rd-30th marks the 17th anniversary of their recovery after becoming completely extinct in the wild in 1980.  There are a slew of social-political reasons that show their struggle is...

“Judith Roche’s fourth collection of poems, All Fire All Water, consists of four parts. “Rivers Have Memories,” the first part, explores nature and our relationship to it. Poems include fish and birds, bees and wolves, storms and the changing of the seasons. Drawing from the Salish Sea, where Roche lives,...

Launched by The Global Peace Initiative of Women (GPIW) in 2008, the Contemplative Alliance is an inter-spiritual movement grounded in contemplative practices and approaches with the goal of heightening awareness and generating actions to address the critical issues of our times. The Alliance seeks to accomplish this by creating an...

Have you ever wondered the statistics on wildlife crossing bridges over interstates and highways?  Cristina Eisenberg’s latest post on HuffPost tells us how they have done in Banff, “the crown jewel of the Canadian national parks”  A step that can make radical change in this one crucial area shows what can...

Besides being the lead scientist at the Earthwatch Institute and a BEI Scholar Cristina Eisenberg has dedicated her life’s research to wolves and predators effects on ecosystems as well as fire.  Check out her latest post in HuffPost on the Yellowstone wolf pack and how they have adapted to adversity...

Check out Patricia’s poem, “Belle de jour” featured at the Ashbery Home School here.

“Island Press is excited to announce the Rewilding Adventure sweepstakes, a once in a lifetime chance to join noted scientist Cristina Eisenberg for a field excursion to track wildlife including wolves, grizzlies, wolverines, lynx and cougars. From classroom discussion to hiking in Yellowstone National Park, the winner will learn not...

“CHICAGO —(ENEWSPF)—February 13, 2015. Farmers, musicians, ecologists, photographers and artists will gather at the DePaul Art Museum in coming months to discuss environmental issues during the “Rooted in Soil” exhibition, which examines the human connection to soil. Events are free and open to the public and will be held at...

Waldorf College will host Mary Swander, poet laureate of Iowa, on Thursday, Feb. 19, as part of the Distinguished Visiting Writers Series on campus. A light dinner reception, hosted by Practical Farmers of Iowa will be 6-7 p.m. followed by a performance of Swander’s short production, “Map of my Kingdom,”...

Read more about the series here.

A North Dakota native turned writer and professor will lead a writing workshop in Rugby next month. Debra Marquart – a English professor and teacher in the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing & Environment program at Iowa State University – will lead writing workshops titled “Our People. Our...

The Black Earth Institute will award 6 fellowships for 2015-2018 term. BEI, now 10 years old, is dedicated to supporting art in re-forging the links between spirit, earth and society. Art can create new space for changing minds and the world. Artists have played this role and BEI is dedicated...

A story about a strong and enlightened woman who shaped much and many. BEI fellow Elizabeth Cunningham was given room to grow in Olga’s school and then room literally as daughter-in law at High Valley Center. BEI was hosted at High Valley for a retreat and we all have a...

Conversations around the Green Fire are 10-20 minute original videos from in-depth interviews, short presentations, and bonus Green Fire footage. Connect with ideas from leading thinkers, as the Center for Humans and Nature continue the dialogue spurred by the Green Fire documentary. The Emmy award-winning documentary film Green Fire: Aldo...

Based on a photo of two summer squash by Edward Weston that hangs in the Yale Art Gallery, the poem was originally commissioned for an exhibit of poems inspired by works in that collection. Here is the poem. Conversation Edward Weston’s “Squash,” 1936 “Delve for me, delve down, delve past...

A poem inspired by his daughter goes nicely in front of a saxophonist Stan Strickland on Radio Boston. The poem titled, “Jazz People” is about little people who live inside instruments and come to life when the instrument is played. A month earlier Regie was broadcast live from the TEDxBoston...

(Dawson)We have on the phone BEI fellow and scholar, author, professor, and Iowa’s Poet Laureate, Mary Swander to talk to her about her insights on performance.  At this year’s Black Earth Institute annual gathering of fellows and scholars we will be focusing on all types of performance and their place...

More about Joy here.

Today we are here at Brigit Rest, the home of the Black Earth Institute in Black Earth, Wi and we are speaking to one of the original fellows of the Black Earth Institute, Dr. Deborah Wood Holton from DePaul University School for new Learning.

I am somewhere between Ghana and Colorado, gushing over the last volume of Scalped, a crime noir set on a fictional Indian reservation. I discover several Ga, Asante, and Twi phrase books in a shop at Elmina Castle. I find the 1964 Pocket Poets edition of Negro Verse edited by...

Since I am an African American (although I prefer Black American) and I write poetry, I assume my poetry is African American. I know, so essentialist. But, my family has been in the United States for at least seven generations–mostly in the South (Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana)—the Delta. To me,...