BEI Emeritus Fellow Ann Fisher-Wirth recently published Mississippi, a collection of her poems with photos by Maude Schuyler Clay.  This review from Jacqueline Knirnschild at BURNAWAY describes the collaboration process between poet and photographer.  Knirnschild also addresses the book’s effect and its implications: “With such a divisive political climate, we need empathy...

Prayer  (by BEI Fellow Ann Fisher-Wirth; published in Vox Populi on June 19, 2018)   Let the mothers rush toward their babies and wrap their arms around them tight enough to hold back even the sea if it would harm them.   Let the anguish melt from the fathers’ eyes. This...

BEI Emeritus Fellow Regie Gibson recently chose four poems out of 138 entries for the Worcester County Poetry Association’s Frank O’Hara Prize.  Massachusetts residents accounted for all four winners.  Gibson will host a winners’ reading this fall, and the authors will have their work published by the WCPA.  Learn more...

Emeritus Fellow Louise Halfe will join Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm to “share…insights on writing as Indigenous women” this Friday, June 8 at 4:30 PM.  Rosanna Deerchild will host this event at the Millennium Library.  Books will be available for purchase.  This is a FREE event!  Visit Downtown Winnipeg BIZ for more details.

BEI is ecstatic to announce that Pam Houston won a 2018 Pushcart Prize for her essay, What Has Irony Done for Us Lately, in BEI Fellow Taylor Brorby‘s edited issue of About Place Journal, “Political Landscapes”. Please help us in congratulating Pam and Taylor for this accomplishment. The Pushcart Prize: Best of the...

AgArts Promotes Intersection of Agriculture and Art   The intersection of art and agriculture is important to BEI Emeritus Fellow Mary Swander. She says art has been a part of ag for a long time with concepts like folk art. Now she has helped start a new non-profit called AgArts. She...

The designer Tory Burch and her eponymous foundation hosted their first-ever conference in New York at the end of April. BEI Emeritus Fellow Regie Gibson closed the summit by reciting a piece he wrote inspired by all that he saw and heard. Among empowering themes, the Embrace Ambition Summit addressed stereotypes and double...

BEI Fellow Lauren Camp is featured in the Spring 2018 edition of The Indianapolis Review. In addition to displaying her visual artwork, the piece includes an interview that delves deep into the artist’s creative process. Click on ‘Momentum’ for the full story

Yesterday, BEI Scholar Liam Heneghan hosted an event at DePaul University for Beasts at Bedtime: Revealing the Environmental Wisdom in Children’s Literature (University of Chicago Press, 2018). In his new book, scientist (and father) Heneghan examines the environmental underpinnings of children’s stories.  Within the entertaining pages of these books lie profound teachings about...

BEI Emeritus Fellow Regie Gibson will be joined by Massachusetts’ best poets at this year’s festival in Salem, MA.  Here’s where you can find Gibson over the weekend: Friday, May 4 at 1:15pm Poetry of Place: Boston   Hawthorne Hotel, Library Room 18 Washington Square W Boston’s distinctive narrative and always-present past, its cityscape of...

To honor Earth Day this year, Black Earth Institute partnered with Arts + Literature Laboratory to hold a special reading at Olbrich Gardens in Madison, Wisconsin. BEI spotlighted local writers who use their collective voices to create poetry and prose, which advocates for an environmental cause: opposing the Cardinal Hickory Creek...

Emeritus Fellow Linda Hogan will visit Appalachian State University as the final author in Appalachian’s spring 2018 Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writing Series.  She will be sharing her voice with two events: Craft Talk: “Intuition: The Inner Voice” and the annual Juanita Tobin Memorial Reading. Kathryn Kirkpatrick, professor in Appalachian’s Department...

In today’s issue of Chicago Tribune, BEI Emeritus Fellow, Tom Montgomery Fate, reviews Climate Church, Climate World (Rowman & Littlefield) by Jim Antal. Beyond the threats that face our planet, Reverend Antal’s book focuses on the current lack of human response to stopping climate change and the social injustices it exacerbates. He...

Adelphi University will prompt 227 students from high schools across Long Island to show their creative side with Poetry Day, celebrating the written word with workshops, an open-mic poetry slam, an awards ceremony, and BEI Fellow Patrica Spears Jones as a keynote speaker. On Wednesday, April 25, students will gather...

Join BEI Emeritus Fellow Annie Finch and yogi Joyce E. Levy February 9 – 16, 2019 for a life-changing week of words and yoga in Guatemala. On the shore of Lake Atitlán at Villa Sumaya Retreat Center & Spa, magical tools for mind, body, heart, will, and spirit, will spiral...

BEI Fellow Todd Davis will have his poetry on display as part of a new exhibition at Gallerie Karon in conjunction with Ashland Gallery Association’s First Friday’s art walk on April 6.  Participating galleries and businesses in downtown Ashland, the Railroad District and surrounding areas will stay open until 8...

Current BEI Fellow Lauren Camp will be touring Rochester 14-17 of April. The visit is sponsored by the Mayo Clinic Behavioral Health Research Program Department of Psychiatry and Psychology and University of Minnesota Rochester.  Public events during her tour include events such as writing workshops; a poetry reading with local poets;...

Within the entertaining pages of many children’s books lie profound teachings about the natural world that can help children develop an educated and engaged appreciation of the dynamic environment they inhabit. In Beasts at Bedtime: Revealing the Environmental Wisdom in Children’s Literature (University of Chicago Press, 2018), BEI Resident Scholar Advisor, scientist...

The Clarion Ledger named “Mississippi” by BEI Fellow Ann Fisher-Wirth with photographs by Maude Schuyler Clay (Wings Press) #8 on the week of April 1’s best sellers list. “The imperishable quiet at the heart of form.” This quietness, found by contemplating Clay’s photographs, was at the heart of Fisher-Wirth’s poetic process,...

BEI Emeritus Fellow Tom Montgomery Fate had an article published in the March 2018 issue of Christian Century. The self-reflective essay, Spiritual Detours, explores the author’s winter arrival at St. John’s Abbey, a Benedictine monas­tery, and how prayer can take us by surprise and to places we didn’t intend to go. Enjoy this...

The Tory Burch Foundation will host the first Embracing Ambition Summit, which promises to expand on the Foundation’s mission to provide access to capital, education, and resources to empower women entrepreneurs. BEI Emeritus Fellow Regie Gibson is scheduled as a speaker at the event. He and other leaders, artists and...

One of the most highly-regarded literary magazines in the country has chosen a poem by BEI Fellow Todd Davis as their Poem of the Week. For the past 40 years, The Missouri Review (TMR) has helped shape the contemporary literary scene by publishing the best writers and brightest new voices....

BEI Emeritus Fellow Kathleen Sweeney will use her expertise in combining video, text and social change to collaborate with Director Helen Whitney on her latest work for PBS, “Into the Night: Portraits of Life and Death”. The documentary is a lyrical exploration of mortality, featuring nine men and women of uncommon eloquence...

More than 200 original artworks created by regional talent from around northwest Louisiana will compete for Best in Show in visual and literary categories in an annual competition and exhibition. Critical Mass 6 will inhabit a multi-dimensional and multi-discipline collection of paintings, sketches, photography, sculpture, literature and more. The literary critic will be...

The Hunger Dialogue group is preparing to bring a second Iowa Food Insecurity Summit to Storm Lake, Iowa. The group spurred the first food insecurity summit two years ago, keynoted by BEI Emeritus Fellow and Iowa Poet Laureate Mary Swander.  At that inagural event, held at the AEA building, Swander...

Edited by BEI Fellow Melissa Tuckey, Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology is a gathering of poetry at the intersection of culture, social justice, and the environment. This ground-breaking book of poems brings social justice to the forefront of eco-poetry and offers a rich terrain of culturally diverse perspectives. Ghost...

In an unforgettable partnership, BEI Fellow Ann Fisher-Wirth and photographer Maude Schuyler Clay have collaborated on MISSISSIPPI, a gorgeous new book that offers a new spirit of place for their home state. The book features 47 poems by Ann Fisher-Wirth and 47 color photographs by Maude Schuyler Clay that explore the history,...

The South Dakota Symphony Youth Orchestra joins the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra to perform a scene from American Indian composer Jerod Impichcaachaaha’ Tate’s Lowak Shoppala’ (Fire and Light) on Saturday, Feb. 3, at 7:30 p.m., during an evening of music at the Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls. Tate’s Lowak Shoppala’, created as an...

Congratulations to BEI Fellow Ann Fisher-Wirth! The English Department at Ole Miss has named her February Professor of the Month. Don’t miss out on Dr. Fisher-Wirth’s reading from her new book, Mississippi, February 6th at 5:00 pm at Off Square Books.

An article written by Kelly Bastone was published this month in Denver magazine, 5280, about The High Lonesome Ranch in western Colorado. BEI Emeritus Fellow Cristina Eisenberg has conducted research projects at the ranch concerning her work with wolves, specifically, “trophic cascades,” or how wolves and other top predators have a waterfall effect...

On Thursday, February 22, 2018, Iowa Poet Laureate and BEI Emeritus Fellow Mary Swander will read, discuss, and maybe share a banjo tune! Admission is free because this event is funded by Humanities Iowa. Come along from 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm at the Orpheum Theater Center, 220 E. Main St., Marshalltown, IA. If you are...

People’s Music Network Concert: 7:30 to 10 p.m. Jan. 26 First Parish Church 1446 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge. Tickets: $11-$20.   The People’s Music Network, a national community of musicians and activists dedicated to making music for positive social change in the world, will kick off its 2018 Winter Gathering with...

Readings and discussion about the immigrant experience are to take place at the Mesa Public Library’s Upstairs Rotunda. The readings will feature Los Alamos poet Jane Lin and BEI Fellow Lauren Camp, both of whose work is anthologized in the new book “Two-Countries – US Daughters & Sons of Immigrant Parents,” edited...

The inaugural Mass Cultural Council Institute will take place on March 17 at the DCU Center in Worcester. Its aim is to connect youths and their peers with city and town leadership from every corner of the Commonwealth. Our youth have tremendous capacity to be a visible and audible part...

BEI Senior Fellow, Annie Finch, will host an online course sharing her poetry composition expertise from Monday February 5 to Friday February 9, 2018. It can be tempting to think of rhythm, meter or form as a container; something outside and separate from a poem.  But the best poems sing...

Rhode Island Black Storytellers hosts a unique event melding Shakespeare and hiphop with words and music featuring Emeritus fellow Regie Gibson and Marlon Carey, their band and others. This celebration takes place Sunday, 14th January 2018 04:00 PM – 06:00 PM at South Side Cultural Center, 393 Broad Street, Providence, RI. Email – info@ribsfest.org Website – www.ribsfest.org

This month, Wood County Park District programs’ EcoLit Book Group will discuss “Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World,” nature essays by Linda Hogan. The meeting will take place on Jan. 11th from 7-9 p.m. at W.W. Knight Nature Preserve, 29530 White Road, Perrysburg in the Hankison Great Room. Discussion leader:...

Join BEI fellow Kathleen Sweeney, owner of The Center of Holistic Wellness in Mount Vernon, on Tuesday, January 23, 2018 at 06:30pm for a workshop to realign your Soul Blueprint. An individual’s Spiritual DNA, or Soul Blueprint, holds our greatest gifts and abilities. This workshop explains how this Blueprint becomes contaminated...

The Worcester County Poetry Association is now accepting submissions to its annual poetry contest. BEI Emeritus Fellow, Regie Gibson, will select three winners to receive cash prizes and the winning poem will be published in the next edition of The Worcester Review, the WCPA’s nationally recognized journal. The talented chosen...

This has been a great year for the fellows and scholars of the Black Earth Institute. Their achievements across many disciplines showcase their creativity and activism and are expressions of BEI’s mission of having art address the spirit, protecting the earth and social justice. We have not only produced such...

Emeritus fellow Linda Hogan will speak at the University of Colorado – Colorado Springs winter commencement on December 15.  Hogan is an alumna of UCCS.  Her accomplishments in the state include teaching creative writing at both CU Boulder and Colorado College.  On December 14th, Hogan will hold a reading and...

On November 29, Emeritus Fellow Mary Swander was a guest on WGN Radio’s “The Opening Bell” with Steve Grzanich.  The episode was titled “Moving Agriculture Forward Through The Arts” to reflect Swander’s work in bridging those fields.  Click here to listen to the interview.  (Swander also recently spoke on the Female Farmer...

BEI Fellow, Tammy Gomez recently joined an extremely important panel on The Natural World, Environmental Racism, and Reproductive Rights. The Event was held by Salem College’s Center for Women Writers. Gomez, a traveling writer, working on issues in the U.S., as well as in Mexico and Nepal, always has her...

BEI Emeritus Fellow, Mary Swander recently appeared on the Female Farmers Podcast to discuss the intersection of art and agriculture. Swander, the Poetry Laureate of Iowa is often bridging these two worlds. Recently Swander had written a play about first generation farmers in America, and afterwards, she used this platform...

BEI Senior Fellow, Annie Finch is a prolific poet, constantly publishing her poems in new journals, and expanding her horizons as a writer. Now, Finch is offering writers a chance to learn from her experience. Purchase and read her book, “A Poet’s Ear: A Handbook of Meter and Form” to...

BEI Emeritus Fellow Debra Marquart is a creative writing and environment at Iowa State University. Marquart, an expert in this niche writing field, is so often sharing her knowledge with her students, to promote their writing. However online at the Iowa State Digital Repository, a vast assortment of her works...

BEI Senior Fellow Annie Finch recently publish a poem: (Poem) Samhain in the Mago E* Magazine. Samhain refers to a Gaelic Holiday which marks the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter. Read the poem here to see this piece, originally published in Eve in the Carnegie...

Over the next few months, readings from “Nasty Women Poets: An Anthology of Subversive Verse” will take place around the country. On Monday, Oct. 30, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln hosted one of these readings at the Bailey Library located inside of Andrews Hall. This poetry anthology and arrangement of readings...

The Lexington Refugee Assistance Program recently held a “Blowout Arts” Fundraiser to raise money for refugees seeking asylum. BEI Emeritus Fellow Regie Gibson contributed to this event by acting as artistic director, as well as by writing refugee themed pieces for the event. Gibson said of his role in the...

BEI Fellow Melissa Tuckey recently read her poetry on ecological subject matter, “with explicit references to recent disasters caused by hurricanes, flooding and wildfires.” Turkey was reading over the playing of Cellist, Matt Haimovitz,who made twists on some of Bach’s works to create a slightly melancholy and captivating sound. The...

BEI Emeritus Fellow, Tom Montgomery Fate recently published an article in The Chicago Tribune on the generation of people born in between 1995-2012. These young adults to children, according to research to do not remember a time without computers in their lives, and can spend often a third of their...

BEI Senior Fellow, Annie Finch recently had her poem, “All Hallows’ Eve” published in the Flowers of Socrates Journal. The poem has a fast pace, sounding almost like a witch casting a spell, while at the same time hitting on a multitude of different subjects such as gender-roles, mythology and...

BEI Senior Fellow Annie Finch covers a broad range of topics within her poetry. Norse Skalds, West-African Griots, and Celtic Bards are just some of the subjects that have inspired Finch. But her work goes beyond what she personally engages with. Finch has done work with The Women’s Poetry Timeline,...

BEI Fellow, Lauren Camp can be heard reading her poems from her most recent book, “One Hundred Hungers” on the following link to Soundcloud. The Book explores her Iraqi-Jewish heritage, and her father’s personal life history growing up in Baghdad, as well as the sabbath dinners spent in America with...

BEI Emeritus Fellow, Brenda Peterson has long been an author whose works are widespread. Another example of this comes through Princeton University’s Library Catalog, where ten of Peterson’s works can be found. These works are: “Wolf Nation,” “I want to be Left Behind: Finding Rapture here on Earth,” “Animal Heart,”...

BEI Emeritus Fellow Marcella Durand recently reviewed Bernadette Mayer’s ‘Memory,’ a performance piece that debuted in Holly Solomon Gallery in 1972, which was recently installed in the Lower East side of Canada. Memory was originally based on Cy Twombly’s 15th century still-life work that made comments on poetry and art....

BEI Emeritus Fellow, Mary Swander will be judging the Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award contest. Kansas Literary Nonfiction writers with book length works published in the past three years (2015/16/17) are eligible to win the $1,000 2018 Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award in Literary Nonfiction. The annual award, rotating between...

BEI Resident Scholar Advisor, Liam Heneghan recently published an article in The Wire, entiteled “Here’s a New Word for that Feeling When Travel Makes Everything New.” The word being: Allokataplixis- The gift usually unacknowledged, that the traveler offers the place they visit. Heneghan focuses on that magical feeling of being swept away...

BEI Emeritus Fellow Mary Swander’s play “Vang” has been successfully performed multiple times now in Detroit, and has brought the topic of immigration to centerstage. Playwright Swander said regarding the play “It raises questions about the stereotypes that we have about immigrants.”The play portrays migrant farmers from Thailand, Sudan and...

BEI Senior Fellow, Patricia Spears Jones has a new post on her website, archiving the month of September in 2017 into memoriam through a short piece. Jones reflects on Septembers lingering feel of summer, but with more moisture now coming through. Moisture both in terms of cooling weather, and more...

BEI Emeritus Fellow, Brenda Peterson’s essay, “Growing up Game” was recently used in an article posted on “Studybreaks,” advocating for the sustainability and moral good of hunting. In the article, the author points out the way in which hunting is a more personal connection to your food, as well as...

BEI Resident Scholar Advisor, Liam Heneghan has a new book with the Chicago Press for sale. The book is called “Beasts at Bedtime,” and seeks to reveal the environmental wisdom in children’s literature. Heneghan has been a part of projects to create new words to cultivate an appreciation of people’s...

BEI Fellow, Lauren Camp recently published two poems, “While They Make Money on the Far Side of Home,” and “Alpha Bravo Charlie Delta Echo.” Both poems seek to create a more well-rounde view of political affairs, speaking about what happens to less wealthy, or minority populations while industry and war...

BEI Emeritus fellow, Brenda Peterson recently appeared on New Dimensions Radio, a station that promotes “Activism, art, education, science, psychology, philosophy, health, spirituality… all these things and more.” In this segment, entitled, “The Benefit of Restoring Wildlife into the Ecosystem,” Peterson lends her expert knowledge on wolves, and ecosystems as...

Annie Finch’s “And the Voice was The Sea” has been featured in The Press Herald’s Weekly poetry segment. The author of the article, Gibson Fay LeBlanc said, “the poem speaks to us in a rollicking, sculpted, rhyming voice that we might imagine the sea speaking with, if it used words.”...

BEI Emeritus Fellow Brenda Peterson’s work on wolf populations in Yellowstone National Park is the subject of a new iNews article. Since wolves have been reintegrated in Yellowstone National Park, the entire environment and all wildlife populations have returned to a healthier state. This humbling rarity from a time when...

BEI Fellow, Lauren Camp recently received honorable mention for the Arab American Book Awards. In her new collection, Lauren Camp explores the lives of a first-generation Arab-American girl and her Jewish-Iraqi parent. One Hundred Hungers tells overlapping stories of food and ritual, immigration and adaptation, evoking her father’s boyhood in Baghdad in...

BEI Senior Fellow, Patricia Spears Jones recently posted a new poem on her website titled “The city joyful, They city traditional, The city holding on.” The poem is about a young female toddler performing her dance for an audience, and the fact that there is still hope and beauty in...

BEI Emeritus Fellow, Brenda Peterson recently had her book “Wolf Nation” featured in the Santa Fe, New Mexico, Pasatiempo review. In the article, discussing Peterson’s work and the subject it says: “Wolf Nation concentrates on wolf and human interactions. For example, with regard to New Mexico and the Mexican gray...

BEI Emeritus Fellow Brenda Peterson, was recently featured in an article written in The Revelator, an initative for the center of biological diversity. The article, written by environmental journalist Erica Cirino, entitled “Rethinking the Big, Bad Wolf,” leans on Peterson’s newest work, “Wolf Nation” to assert its logic. “While nonlethal...

in a new article entitled ” Wolf Nation: The Life, Death, and Return of Wild American Wolves By Brenda Peterson,” Peterson’s new wide-sweeping work is discussed. Says the article “Wolf Nation focuses on wolf and human interactions.” Peterson has been constantly calling for more attention on the way we manage...

BEI Senior Fellow Annie Finch is trying to bring more creative energy, acknowledgment, and appreciation for summer. Says Finch on Tribarch” “I suspect one reason the poetic power of summer is subtler than that of other seasons is that summer doesn’t really need poets to celebrate or understand it. Summer is...

BEI fellow Lauren Camp’s biography can be seen on the Poetry foundation website. They note her status as a BEI Fellow, as well as some of her most recent publications. They also note her upcoming books of poetry. Lauren Camp is the author of three books, including One Hundred Hungers(2016), which...

BEI Fellow, Lauren Camp recently published her poem “Away” in the Wildness Literary Journal. Wildness is an online literary journal that seeks to publish contemporary poetry, fiction and nonfiction that evokes the unknown—the lostness; the distance. Lauren Camp is the author of three books, most recently One Hundred Hungers (Tupelo Press, 2016),...

BEI Emeritus Fellow, Brenda Peterson is coming out with a new children’s book called Lobo. Lobo by Brenda Peterson, photos by Annie Marie Musselman, following the lives of a Mexican gray wolf family from a sanctuary in Washington state to their release into the wild in Mexico. This book continues upon Peterson’s...

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...