Read this review of Scott Russell Sanders’s “At the Gates of Deep Darkness” by Tom Montgomery Fate. Originally published by The Christian Century. The artist at the end of the world Scott Russell Sanders’s essays balance ecological despair with the promise of human creativity. by Tom Montgomery Fate September 24, 2020 In...
Todd Davis was recently the subject of a Penn State News article surrounding his recent spoken word poem. Altoona professor’s blog features ‘A Promise of New Life in the Coming Year’ ALTOONA, Pa. — Todd Davis, professor of environmental studies and English at Penn State Altoona, has released the 14th...
Read this review of Lauren Camp’s “Took House” by Jennifer Levin. Originally published by Santa Fe New Mexican. Took House by Lauren Camp A few lines of poetry came to Lauren Camp as she stood outside at dusk. She doesn’t see well at that time of day, when the...
Author Ann Fisher-Wirth reminds us of the importance of literature and community when times are at their most challenging. Read her newly published essay now! But What If We Started Listening? by Ann Fisher-Wirth For the past couple of years, I’ve been feeling like a deer in the headlights of...
Kerry Trask was recently mentioned in an article published by Herald Times Reporter Manitowoc Jacob Blake protest: ‘So many people have forgotten how to be human and how to love one another’ Alisa M. Schafer Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter MANITOWOC – A small crowd of protesters gathered at the...
Dear friends, comrades, colleagues, We invite you to join us next Friday for this summer reading, the third in our Practices of Hope series. Find out about a clay egg, micaceous Pueblo pots, kitsune foxes, past life flyovers, an alien’s microscope, an FBI mystery around a father’s death, a planet broke...
“Juneteenth” by Kathleen Sweeney is a collection of beautiful images. These images help bring more attention to how our society is changing for the better. If you weren’t able to go to a protest, these pictures will take you there. Check out more of her work at her website Kathleen...
Lauren Camp along with Kimberley Quiogue Andrews was recently in a joint interview with Ruben Quesada. Both talk about their journey as poets. Originally posted by Kenyon Review Poetry Today #16: Death and Optimism Ruben Quesada July 28, 2020 Poetry Today is a series that celebrates poetics and aesthetics—the composition, look,...
Read this review of Ann Fisher-Wirth’s “The Bones of Winter Birds” by Stephen Black. Originally published by The Hopper The Bones of Winter Birds by Ann Fisher-Wirth Terrapin Books, 2019 Reviewed by STEPHEN BLACK The Tibetan practice of Tonglen requires the practitioner to breathe in the pain of others and...
BEI Senior Fellow, Patricia Spears Jones, had her poem “four” published in The Brooklyn Rail. Read it here! four By Patricia Spears Jones Black lives pandemic protest (vaccine) I want a tree house, the Hollywood kind—huge, luxurious Built with a really soft bed and paneless windows for ventilation and...
BEI Emeritus Fellow, Linda Hogan, was recently featured in Book Riots American History Summer Reading List, Check out the original article here! An American History Summer Reading List Nancy Snyder Jul 20, 2020 With the hopefulness and optimism of pre-pandemic summers, I composed a summer reading booklist. Historical fiction mixed...
BEI senior fellow, Annie Finch, will be featured in the Bangalore Poetry Festival. Check our the original article published in The New Indian Express here. In new rhythm Published: 21st July 2020 03:46 AM | Last Updated: 21st July 2020 03:24 PM by Vidya Iyengar BENGALURU :The fifth edition of...
“Look into / the distance,” says the speaker, “Where we are in / the distance, in the line where / grasses meet trees. We may be / here standing at the window / or standing at the edge.” In Marcella Durand’s The Prospect, perspective is everything. In conversation with 18th...
Allison Hedge Coke’s poems “Viscera” were recently published in World Literature Today. Viscera by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke Photo courtesy of the author for Rachelle 4/27/2020 Our moms were widows before they met our fathers. Their hair blue-black, their hands already chapped, caressed by Inglis die-cast tooling Bren light machine guns,...
Lauren Camps’ new essay focuses on what gets her through these difficult times. Original article provided by Ecotone Magazine Planting in the high desert is about compromise. What can stand firm through careening wind? What can handle summer’s bubble-wrap heat? Aside from a brief delirium with utterly wrong choices, for...
BEI Emeritus Fellow, Todd Davis was recently awarded the Midwest Book award. Check out the original article here! Altoona professor’s poetry collection wins Midwest Book Award ALTOONA, Pa. — Todd Davis, professor of English and environmental studies at Penn State Altoona, has won the Midwest Book Award for his poetry...
“Abortion is health care,” says the doctor in Sylvia Ramos Cruz’s appropriately titled poem “The Doctor Speaks: Abortion is Health Care.” But while this doctor may see the logic in abortion practice because she understands the “science, ritual, real-life consequences of practicing medicine,” many individuals and groups around the globe...
Lauren Camps “Took House” was recently named Editors Pick for World Literature Today. Read this beautiful review of her book by World Literature Today Took House by Lauren Camp by Daniel Simon Lauren Camp Took House Tupelo Press I will speak of this wind . . . of the seams of desire. —Lauren...
“I thank the bowl of my hips,” says the speaker, “I thank the soft edges of my skull / my sternum, big bone presses down / my liver wraps itself around and breathes out toxic / smooth wood and green upholstery . . .” Part furnished room, part garden, part...
BEI Emeritus Fellow Regie Gibson recently appeared on the Art, Life, and Shit podcast With Josh Friedman discussing Shakespeare, the Three P’s and The Talk. Listen below!
BEI Emeritus fellow Tom Montgomery Fate was originally featured as a guest author in The Daily Herald. Looking for truths, comfort in ‘the gospel of this moment’ By Tom Montgomery Fate Guest columnist 6/15/2020 1:00 AM I retired from the classroom two months before the pandemic hit. Just in time...
BEI Scholar Kerry Trask will be signing books on June 20th. Check out this article from The Herald Times Reporter for more information! Kerry Trask to sign books at LaDeDa Books & Beans June 20 ‘Fire Within: A Civil War Narrative from Wisconsin’ by Kerry A. Trask. (Photo: Provided) Kerry Trask,...
Debra Marquart, BEI Emeritus Fellow, was recently on Iowa Public Radio’s show, Talk of Iowa. Listen here!
Brenda Peterson publishes a new essay called “Backward Christian Soldiers” which originally appeared on Tikkun. In this essay, Brenda Peterson looks at the connection between social justice and religion. Backward Christian Soldiers By Brenda Peterson | June 10, 2020 The only thing I miss about my Southern Baptist childhood is the music—the melancholy...
“People come to the wilderness with what they have—a box of wine, fresh tomatoes, huckleberries, encounters with bears, information about weather, questions, loss, madness, stories—and it’s enough.” DJ Lee comes to the Selway-Bitterroot country for over a decade with her own stories: fragments of family history, questions about the women...
BEI Scholar, Kerry Trask will be running for State Assembly. This article originally appeared in SeehaferNews.com Trask to Oppose Tittl for Assembly in November by Lakeshore News A retired History professor from UW-Manitowoc has announced that he will be a candidate for the 25th district State Assembly seat in Madison....
Regie Gibson, BEI Emeritus fellow, was recently interviewed on TNC Radio. Listen to it below!
Debra Marquart, BEI Emeritus Fellow, originally appeared on Washington County Pilot-Tribune & Enterprise Meet Iowa’s poet laureate (and former rock-n-roller) By Jeff Morgan, Iowa Culture Wire In 1980, Debra Marquart had a promising career. The 24-year-old North Dakota native was shooting to stardom as a singer in a band and...
Debra Marquart, BEI Emeritus Fellow, was recently on Iowa Public Radio. Listen below!
Ann Fisher-Wirth, BEI Senior Fellow, was recently featured on Earthtalk on the Poetry and Planet Podcast! Read original article here. Ann Fisher-Wirth Enchants With Environmental Studies In Verse Ethan Goffman Ann Fisher-Wirth has lived in Germany, Pennsylvania, Japan, California, and Virginia; she has been in Mississippi since 1988. Her sixth...
DJ Lee, BEI Scholar, in The Lewiston Tribute! Read the original article here. Following a story’s path Memoir explores Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness By MICHELLE SCHMIDT mschmidt@inland360.com There are places that don’t belong to us to which we find ourselves connected, often in ways we don’t understand. For DJ (Debbie) Lee,...
BEI Emeritus Fellow, Debra Marquart, recently wrote for the HPR Contributer. Read the original article here. ON THE EPHEMERALITY OF THINGS: THOUGHTS ON THE DEMISE OF A SMALL LITERARY PRESS by Debra Marquart marquart@iastate.edu A few years ago, I was giving a talk at the Fargo Public Library about researching...
BEI Scholar, Liam Heneghan’s Blog, 10 Things Wrong With Environmental Thinking, was featured in The Irish Times. Below is the except about Liam’s Blog in the article, “Getting out into nature with a good blog”. Click here to read the rest of the article. 10 Things Wrong with Environmental Thinking...
Book of poems by Altoona English professor named finalist for book award April 29, 2020 ALTOONA, Pa. — Todd Davis, professor of English and environmental studies at Penn State Altoona, has published a sixth book of poems, “Native Species,” which has been named one of three finalists for the Midwest Book...
Lauren Camp, BEI Senior Fellow, was recently on KUNN’s All That Jazz. Listen here! Poetry…In A Time It’s Needed Most Sat 4/25, 12p: Carol Boss talks with 4 New Mexico poets about the need for poetry in times of uncertainty. Joining her for poetry and conversation is Albuquerque poet laureate...
BEI Senior Fellow, Ann Fisher-Wirth was recently featured on Ole Miss University of Mississippi News website. Click here to view the original article! Grant to Help Expand Environmental Studies Program UM English professor receives National Endowment for the Humanities funding APRIL 29, 2020 BY SHEA STEWART OXFORD, Miss. – A University of Mississippi English...
“If we called abortion ‘miscarriage,’ or maybe ‘optional miscarriage,’ would it be more beautiful?” —Nicole Walker Safe abortion should be an option available to all women, but as they are in the search for legitimate providers, many people declare the fetus to already be a human, to already possess a...
Lauren Camp’s Poem “Red’s Shrewdness” was published in the Columbia Journal on March 31, 2020. Read the Columbia Journal Here. “Red’s Shrewdness” by Lauren Camp “Silence is so accurate.”—Mark Rothko That winter when winter was thick as a knot, Rothko sat sluggish in long-johns and warm black socks, eyes plagued...
Mary Swander, BEI Senior Fellow, recently was featured in the Des Moines Register with an article written about her effort to bring information about COVID-19 to the Amish. Read the original article here or keep scrolling. In eastern Iowa, concerned neighbors take steps to ensure Amish get word about COVID-19...
BEI Emeritus, Todd Davis was recently reported to be a Book of the Year finalist by Penn State News click here to read the original post. Books authored by Davis and Murphy named ‘Book of the Year’ finalists Erin C. Murphy and Todd Davis IMAGE: PENN STATE March 23, 2020...
Debra Marquart, BEI Emeritus Fellow, was the featured poet on March 6th for the Poetry Hour from Studio 47. Listen in here!
Petra Kuppers, BEI Fellow, and author of new book of poetry “Gut Botany” was recently interviewed and written about for The Leader. You can read a copy of the article below, or read the original here. ‘Gut Botany’ presents poetry as avenue to exploring one’s own body and inner strengths Kirk...
Listen to BEI Senior fellow, Lauren Camp, on Poems For the People reading poems from One Hundred Hungers. Poems for the People is a podcast for readings of poems classical and contemporary selected by Mischa Willett, author of THE ELEGY BETA and PHASES. You can find the podcast here!
The three nominees are: Jacqueline Johnson, The Prairie Speaks; DJ Lee, Slime Redemption; J.D. Ho, The Tree with a Thousand Faces.
“I am delighted to announce the Pushcart nominations from About Place Journal: Dignity as an Endangered Species in the 21st Century, edited by me, CM Furhman and Maggie Miller. It’s always tough to make these choices. I wish we could have chosen many more pieces from the fabulous work featured...
BEI Scholar Advisor, Liam Heneghan’s essay, Reading Matters: Why You Should Read about Beasts with Your Children was published by 3 Quarks Daily: Science Arts Philosophy Politics Literature
BEI Senior Fellow Patricia Spears Jones’s poem, An American Haze, was published in Vox Populi: A Public Sphere for Poetry, Politics and Nature.
Catastrophe by the Sea is now out to excellent reviews. Watch this stunning book trailer of Catastrophe by the Sea, with artwork by Caldecott Award Medalist Ed Young. Enjoy!
Ann Fisher-Wirth has been awarded honorable mention for the Auburn Witness Poetry Prize for 2019. The prize honors Jake Adam York and a commitment to Alabama. Ann’s poem, At the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, looks at violence including lynching, and shootings centering on Lucille Clifton’s witnessing these and creating. History...
Read BEI Emeritus Fellow Brenda Peterson’s article in this issue of Tikkun below. Peterson is one of several featured authors who write about decolonization in Tikkun. Peterson’s piece, on page 92, is titled “Ugly and Underfoot: The Colonization of Animals”. This issue of Tikkun also includes Reader Responses to Peterson’s...
Editing literary publications is an opportunity to select art that can strengthen the values and direction for the future from wonderful people. At the recent AWP Pamela Uschuk, editor of Cutthroat, A Journal of the Arts, and a Black Earth Institute Fellow, organized a panel called “Art and Activism, Poetry...
The poem Moon for Our Daughters by Annie Finch, BEI Senior Fellow, was recently published on Poetry.org! Annie Finch is a poet, author, and performer; and has published more than twenty books, most recently Spells: New and Selected Poems. Her incantational, mystical poems explore earth-centered spirituality, merging word, music, and ritual. She leads writing...
Taylor Brorby, Emeritus Fellow, was raised in North Dakota in a family enveloped in the coal industry. In this essay, Biting the Hand That’s Fed Me, he wrote for the Resilience Uncertain Future Forum, Brorby details in heartfelt language his journey away from coal to a leading position in the...
Elizabeth Cunningham, BEI Emeritus Fellow, recently contributed to the Feminism and Religion volunteer-project blog. The purpose of FAR is “to further feminist dialogue while nurturing one another’s work, even across our differences.” Using an excerpt from her book The Passion of Mary Magdalen, Cunningham writes her post “in remembrance of all the refugees...
As part of ASLE (Assocation for the Study of Literature and Environment) annual conference in Davis, California, June 2019, BEI Fellow Petra Kuppers co-led with poet Stephanie Heit a post-conference workshop, Tendings and Eco-poetic Disability Culture: Bodymindspirits of the Future. The workshop offered an artful space for engagement and resource-sharing,...
Congratulations to DJ Lee for submitting her book, Remote: Fifteen Years Through the Wilderness, to Oregon State University Press for print last week. DJ and her new book were chosen by the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) for the “7 Coming-Up Author Showcase”. The 7 Coming-Up event...
Claudia Savage is an Arab American poet, essayist, and performer; and is a member of the Portland-based performance duo Thick in the Throat, Honey. Her BEI project revolves around a book she is currently writing, “Metal Used for Beauty Alone,” which discusses the experiences of those affected by the Syrian refugee crisis....
Emeritus Fellow, Melissa Tuckey will be speaking at the 21st Annual Kateri Peace Conference! Historically, the Kateri Tekakwitha Peace conference has met to examine dangers posed by nuclear conflict, but this year there will also be a focus on the climate crisis. Based on the ideological model of the Iroquois,...
Emeritus Fellow, Patricia Spears Jones was recently asked to participate in the Southern Foodways Alliance’s annual project, Summer Field Trip. SFA is based at the University of Mississippi’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture, and its mission is to “document, study, and explore the diverse food cultures of the changing...
Presented by Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth in collaboration with the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, the Annual Modern Dance Festival in Fort Worth, TX is celebrating the legacy of Merce Cunningham this month in celebration of his 100th birthday. Within a 16-day window at The Modern, a variety of films,...
Cutthroat, A Journal Of The Arts and The Black Earth Institute are collaborating to publish an anthology of Contemporary Chicanx Writing. We are calling for poems and prose (short stories, flash fiction, hybrids, essays, memoir pieces). Submit up to 5 poems with a 100 word limit per poem, one prose...
BEI Fellow Jaqueline Johnson’s work uses creatively interweaving art forms; frequently, she turns to quilts and poetry to express emotions regarding current events and social injustices. Currently, she is creating a collection and curating an exhibit which explores in depth the modern relationship of the Black community with police forces,...
Congratulations to Alexis Lathem on her residency with the Marble House Project! The Marble House Project residency program focuses on the integration of conservation and earth-centeredness with artistic work, and encourages artists to forge community connections through their art. Alexis is using the residency to develop her project as a...
This week we are delighted to spotlight our Fellow, Petra Kuppers! Petra has pioneered the community performance project Salamander that “uses underwater photography, dry performance workshops, creative writing, clay work, and video… to find our disabled beauty emerging from the deep…” As a disability performance scholar, Petra has led...
Austin Smith lives in rural Illinois and is an acute observer of the world at hand. This poem is from his book Flyover Country, published by Princeton University Press. Cat Moving Kittens We must have known, Even as we reached Down to touch them Where we’d found them Shut-eyed and...
Debra Marquart BEI Emeritus Fellow recently was on Iowa Public Radio- listen here! Debra Marquart had not originally intended to become an acclaimed poet, a distinguished professor at Iowa State University, or Iowa’s next poet laureate. Marquart instead wanted to be a road musician, singing lead for a rock band...
STONECOAST MFA IN CREATIVE WRITING When and how did you first start to take yourself seriously as a writer? What enabled you to make this shift, and what marked the change? I was a performing musician before I became a writer. I had always been interested in writing and studying song...
By Mike Hoban Monday, May 13, 2019 Ramona Lisa Alexander as Circe and Brandon G. Green as Ulysses Lincoln, with Akili Jamal Haynes in the background in “Black Odyssey Boston.” (Photo: Maggie Hall) To call “Black Odyssey Boston” a retelling of the Greek myth of Ulysses “but with black people” would...
Between “Turquoise Door” and “One Hundred Hungers,” history can be home too By Ashley Clark | 05/10/2019 After growing up in New York and working in a range of professions from disc jockey to visual artist, Lauren Camp found a way to blend her art and poetry. Camp spoke with Arts and...
Donate to this amazing project here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arcfinch/choice-words-writers-on-abortion With reproductive freedom under unprecedented attack at the state and federal levels, it’s time to take back the conversation. Literature has always been at the forefront of profound shifts in human consciousness, and that’s the level of shift that is needed now. It’s time...
Louise Halfe—Sky Dancer—is a Cree poet and writer, Elder and teacher. Born in Two Hills, Alta., she attended a residential school as a child and has drawn on this experience to explore resiliency, reconciliation and the legacy of colonialism, in her poetry. One nominator interviewed her after the publication of...
Meena Alexander, a Consummate Woman of Letters I read and re-read Atmospheric Embroidery so that I could ask her something that would be of interest. But I did not get to ask those questions. Her answers are in the poems. The following is part of a series of essays and reflections published on...
Told through striking and vibrant mixed-media collages, Catastrophe by the Sea is a poignant story of redemption through empathy and compassion found in the most surprising places, and also provides a rich understanding of small creatures that live in a dangerous tidal zone. A lost cat roams the tide pools, pawing relentlessly...
She has received grants and awards from NYSCA, NEA, the Foundation for Contemporary Art, and the BAU Institute for residency at Camargo Foundation in France. She has been a fellow at Robert Rauschenberg Residency and at VCCA, Yaddo, and the Millay Colony. Get more information at the event contact the...
Seminar Notes #2 Contemporary Western scientific accounts of the peopling of the Americas have changed considerably in recent decades. Humans have been on this continent longer, had a vaster range of ecologies, and were more populous than was understood a generation ago. There have been, in other words, many ways...
The 6th Annual Longleaf Writers Conference Features Visiting Authors Rebecca Makkai and Brian Turner, Workshop faculty Matt Bondurant (Fiction), Wendy Rawlings (Fiction), Ann Fisher-Wirth (Poetry), Seth Brady Tucker (Poetry), and Diane Roberts (Creative Non-Fiction) as well as literary agents and special guests, including our fellows Gabriel Houck, Kara van de Graaf,...
Liam Heneghan on Moving Beyond ‘The Balance of Nature’ Listen Here! The ‘balance of nature’ is the most well-known idea from the discipline of ecology that has found its way into popular environmental thought. However, for decades, ecologists have been emphatically declaring that the idea of a ‘balance in nature’...
The Poetry Witch Little Book of Spells Available for pre-order here! In this micro-book, acclaimed “Poetry-Witch” Annie Finch harvests her Spells, spun at the intersection of magic, word, and world. These ritual poems invite readers to experience words not just in the mind, but also in the body and spirit....