Abegunde: BEI fellow update

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...

Continue reading

“What Does it Matter” SHAPING DESTINY

“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...

Continue reading

About Place Journal, Jamie Carr’s meditation on Christopher Isherwood’s “Cabaret”

“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,...

Continue reading

HURRICANE MILTON—Our Drowning World

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...

Continue reading

Book Nook: ‘One River, One Boat’ by BEI fellow Marjory Wentworth

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,...

Continue reading

In Celebration of Reuben Jackson’s Life and Poetry

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...

Continue reading

Black Earth Institute logo

Dear Stanford Letters

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...

Continue reading

Cutthroat Reading

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...

Continue reading

About Place Journal Call for Submissions: Strange Wests

“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...

Continue reading

stills of people reading from the About Place Journal reading series on Zoom

Video from The More-Than-Human World Reading Series

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...

Continue reading

The More-Than-Human World, Volume VII, Issue IV, About Place Journal, October 2023 cover featuring a delicate, realistic drawing of a grayscale fox eyeing orange persimmons, isolated on a white background

The More-Than-Human World Reading Series

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.

Continue reading

Ceasefire and Hostage Exchange Now

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...

Continue reading

Genocide

What could be a more clear expression of genocide? Violence against Palestinians is many decades old and is now clear genocide. Ceasefire now!

Continue reading

Stiletto-Brenda Peterson

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...

Continue reading

Matty Layne Glasgow

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...

Continue reading

Ceasefire Now

  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...

Continue reading

About Place Journal Pushcart Nominees

  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”

Continue reading

Patricia Spears Jones

Patricia Spears Jones Honored with NY State Poet Award

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...

Continue reading

Michael McDermott’s Interview with Dick Cates – About Place Journal

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...

Continue reading

Rajiv Mohabir – Franciscana

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...

Continue reading

Celina Mcmanus – My Father’s Eyes

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,...

Continue reading

Minna Jain – A River Is A Long Soul

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...

Continue reading

Jacqueline Johnson’s Interview with Cathy Fussell

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...

Continue reading

Refugee Review in Terrain.org

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...

Continue reading

“The Long Way Home” Book Review

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...

Continue reading

BEI and Cutthroat Journal at AWP Writer’s Convention

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...

Continue reading

AWP Offsite Reading Program

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...

Continue reading

Recordando Como La Historia Se Repite Poetry Reading

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...

Continue reading

Ann Fisher-Wirth

Ann Fisher-Wirth wins 2023 Governor’s Arts Award

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...

Continue reading

Petra Kuppers

Professor embraces disability through movement

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...

Continue reading

Mary Swander Play to Tour Summer 2023

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...

Continue reading

Why Write Children Books by Brenda Peterson

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...

Continue reading

Paradise Is Jagged—Available for Pre-Orders

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...

Continue reading

Center of Gravity Pushcart Prize Nominations

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...

Continue reading

Pam Uschuk’s Refugee receives recommendation from Orion Magazine

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...

Continue reading

Center of Gravity

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...

Continue reading

Tom Montgomery Fate Book Signing Event

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...

Continue reading

Black Earth Institute emblem

Giving Tuesday!

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...

Continue reading

Navigations: A Place For Peace Pushcart Prize Nominations

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...

Continue reading

Amanda Reavey

Cento for Orphanhood by Amanda Reavey

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...

Continue reading

Ann Fisher-Wirth

Ann Fisher-Wirth wins Excellence in Literature & Poetry

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...

Continue reading

Remember Patricia Monaghan- Black Earth Institute

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...

Continue reading

Fourteen Poems

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,...

Continue reading

Pain and Joy on the Land: A Disability Culture Offering Virtual

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...

Continue reading

Letter: Censorship of books is never a good idea

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...

Continue reading

AgArts Podcast: A Nail Pulling Party

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...

Continue reading

ASLE Conference in Portland, Oregon

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....

Continue reading

Allison Hedge Coke Contender for National Book Award for Poetry

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...

Continue reading

Lauren Camp is the second New Mexico Poet Laureate

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...

Continue reading

Loving and mourning in the kingdom of decay

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...

Continue reading

Petra Kuppers wins 2022 ASLE Book Award

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,...

Continue reading

Brenda Peterson and Ed Young’s “Crane Maiden”

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...

Continue reading

The Long Way Home: Detours and Discoveries- Review

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...

Continue reading

Patricia Spears Jones

Saturnine by Patricia Spears Jones

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...

Continue reading