We are happy to share the following announcement sent to us by Neil Shepard, whom many of you know as our guest poet at the PSOV Spring Workshop on May 3rd. Please save the date for this exciting EcoPoetics Symposium hosted by Sundog Poetry on October 3rd at Champlain College.
I’m writing to give you an early heads-up on our symposium, Environmental Poetry in the Time of Climate Crisis, an afternoon of panel discussions and readings by poets and scientists, on Friday, October 3, 2:00-6:00 p.m. in the Champlain Room at Champlain College in Burlington. I hope you’ll add this to your fall schedule and encourage friends and colleagues to attend as well.
The symposium is hosted by Sundog Poetry, a state-wide poetry organization in Vermont, which sponsors readings, workshops, publications, and occasional symposia on timely subjects. This year’s symposium on Environmental Poetry in the Time of Climate Crisis focuses specifically on the interplay between science and poetry as well as their complementary roles in heightening awareness of our ecological plight.
It is with this in mind that we have gathered significant voices in the fields of environmental science and poetry, Bill McKibben, Nalini Nadkarni, Jane Hirshfield, Jody Gladding, and Alison Hawthorne Deming, for an afternoon of critical conversation. By bringing together poets and scientists, we will demonstrate how the humanities can help translate scientific understanding into cultural meaning and moral imperative. We need every tool at our disposal to face what we must face and continue a conversation that builds community and leads to meaningful action.
Here are brief bios for our headliners: Bill McKibben (Vermont-based environmentalist, founder of 350.org, Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College); Nalini Nadkarni (botanist, National Geographic Explorer at Large, which calls her “queen of the forest canopy,” emeritus professor of Biology, University of Utah,); Jane Hirshfield (one of our country’s leading environmental poets and former Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets); Jody Gladding (Vermont-based environmental poet and past winner of the Yale Younger Poet prize); and Alison Hawthorne Deming (naturalist and poet, Regents Professor Emerita at the University of Arizona).
You can see more information at our Sundog Poetry website: https://sundogpoetry.org/ecopoetics. To recap, this symposium will include a moderated panel discussion, a poetry and prose reading, and programming for student environmental groups and writing workshops. We aim to explore how the mutual powers of poetry and science can connect us to the environment, to our obligations to the earth and to the future.
Again, we hope you’ll help us spread the word and bring your friends and colleagues to this important environmental poetry symposium! If you have questions, please feel free to contact me or our managing director – Drew Frazier, dr**@**********ry.org – at Sundog Poetry.
Yours,
Neil Shepard , Board member, Sundog Poetry