An Excerpt from Brenda Peterson’s “Wolf Haven”

This excerpt was originally found on Brenda Peterson’s Website. Excerpted from the book “Wolf Haven: Sanctuary and the Future of Wolves in North America,” essays by Brenda Peterson, all photographs by Annie Marie Musselman. (Sasquatch Books) THEIR EYES FIND you first, often golden or dark-green and amber-flecked with a fierce and...

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Easter Sunday Poem by Tammy Melody Gomez

This poem by Tammy Melody Gomez was originally posted on Knopf Poetry. In the anthology Together in a Sudden Strangeness: America’s Poets Respond to the Pandemic, editor Alice Quinn offers us a sample of our nation’s verse in a transformative moment. This piece, by the Texan poet Tammy Melody Gomez, reminds...

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Regie Gibson: Letter and Spirit: Here, Among the Americans…

The following event was originally featured in the ArtsBoston. Part of BroadBand’s Latitudes virtual performance series, “Regie Gibson: Letter and Spirit: Here, Among the Americans…”, premieres Thursday, March 25, 2021 at 7:30pm EDT, followed by live talk-back event online. Streams March 25-28, 2021. Poet, songwriter, author and educator Regie Gibson’s...

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The Enchantment of Ceremony by Linda Hogan

This excerpt from The Radiant Lives of Animals was originally published on YesMagazine.org. An Indigenous writer describes how ritual is the entryway to connection and wholeness. In The Radiant Lives of Animals, celebrated Chickasaw writer Linda Hogan draws on ancient stories and traditions to consider the connection among human consciousness, the natural...

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Lebkuchen by Ann Fisher-Wirth

This poem was originally published in MomEggReview. Ann Fisher-Wirth Lebkuchen There is more and more I tell no one Jane Hirshfield Once a week, my mother brought me home to make Lebkuchen, my passion all that fall because it would ripen while I was gone and because it saved talking. I...

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Louise Halfe appointed Parliamentary Poet Laureate

This article was originally published in usask.ca.  Louise Halfe is a BEI Emeritus Fellow. Elder and USask Indigenous advisor receives appointment as Parliamentary Poet Laureate Elder Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer, a highly-renowned University of Saskatchewan (USask) advisor, mentor, writer and honorary degree recipient, has been appointed as Canada’s...

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‘People who Change Our Lives’ by Todd Davis

This post was originally featured on PennStateNews. ALTOONA, Pa. — Todd Davis, professor of environmental studies and English at Penn State Altoona, has released the 15th installment of his “Notes from the Allegheny Front” audio blog. The latest installment is titled “People who Change Our Lives.” Listen to the latest...

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Debra Marquart becomes inaugural recipient of Roger S. Hanson Faculty Support funds

This story was originally reported on by Iowa State University.com. Throughout her vibrant career, Debra Marquart, Distinguished Professor, professor of English and Iowa’s Poet Laureate, continues to create engaging prose. Her passion for both teaching and writing has garnered new support from the Roger S. Hanson Faculty Support Fund in...

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“Can we restore nature?” by Liam Heneghan

This article by Liam Heneghan was originally published in aeon. It is our sad lot that we love perishable things: our friends, our parents, our mentors, our partners, our pets. Those of us who incline to nature draw this consolation: most lovely natural things – the forests, the lakes, the...

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Todd Davis nominated twice for Pushcart Prize

This article was originally posted in Penn State News. ALTOONA, Pa. — Todd Davis, professor of English and environmental studies at Penn State Altoona, has been nominated by two different literary magazines for the Pushcart Prize this year. The journal “Chautauqua” nominated Davis’ poem, “A Map,” and the journal “Natural...

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You Can’t Say Anything Anymore

Metta Sama’s poem, You Can’t Say Anything Anymore was recently featured in KorePress.org‘s Postcards to the Future Collection.   Sama creates a powerful poem solely using common problematic remarks.   #WhyWeCan’tHaveNiceThings I am terribly aggrieved about Atticus Finch being outed as a racist. I’d rather remember the good he did. Team...

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Pushcart Nominee, “Gimeme’igonaan omaa / This place is our lullaby” by Margaret Noodin

The following poem by Margaret Noodin has received a nomination for the 2020 Pushcart Prize.   Gimeme’igonaan omaa This place is our lullaby biidaabang ani bangishimong sunrise to sunset gimiwang ani gakijiwang. rainfall to waterfall. Gidayaangwaamimigonaan This place is our warning zegaanakwak ziibiskendamang storm clouds and sorrow manidoog manidoonsikaazowaad. spirits...

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How It’s Made: Lauren Camp’s Took House

Lauren Camp was recently mentioned in an article published by Frontier Poetry.  Lauren takes readers through her process of creating her most recent collection, Took House. What were the most joyful moments of Took House’s journey to publication? I began the poems that became Took House in 2005. My decisions about what would be...

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Comfort food and books for comfort

Lauren Camp was recently mentioned in an article published by RDR News.  Christina Stock makes her recommendations on the best way to spend an evening; A comforting meal with a comforting book.   By Christina Stock In these past months, since the pandemic hit the state and forced us to...

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Review of Scott Russell Sanders’s “At the Gates of Deep Darkness” by Tom Fate

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...

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But What If We Started Listening?

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...

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Practices of Hope Reading Series

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...

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“Juneteenth” by Kathleen Sweeney

“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...

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Annie Finch featured in Bangalore Poetry Festival

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...

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Allison Hedge Coke’s poem “Viscera”

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,...

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Lauren Camps “Building a Cactus Garden”

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...

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Todd Davis wins Midwest Book Award

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...

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HEARTBREAK, HEROISM, LOVE, A Review of “Choice Words: Writers on Abortion,” an anthology edited by Annie Finch

“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...

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Tom Montgomery in The Daily Herald

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...

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Kerry Trask to sign books June 20th

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,...

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Brenda Peterson explores the connection between religion and social justice

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...

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Kerry Trask to Run for State Assembly

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....

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Ann Fisher-Wirth on Poetry and Planet Podcast

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...

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DJ Lee in The Lewiston Tribute

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,...

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Debra Marquart in the HPR Contributer

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...

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Liam Heneghan’s Blog Featured in The Irish Times

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...

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Todd Davis named Finalist for Book Award

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...

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Ann Fisher-Wirth, Grant to Help Expand Environmental Studies Program

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...

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Lauren Camp in the Columbia Journal

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...

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Petra Kuppers in “The Leader”

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...

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Lauren Camp on Poems For the People Podcast

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!

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Editor Pam Uschuk names the Pushcart nominees from the APJ issue – Dignity as an Endangered Species in the 21st Century

“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...

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Brenda Peterson, on the Colonization of Animals

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...

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Pam Uschuk: Art and Activism, Poetry and Editing

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...

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Annie Finch: Poetry Publication

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...

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