T194.
Indigenous Ecopoetry: Environmental Perspectives from Those Who Came First
Thursday, March 24, 2022
1:45 pm to 3:00 pm
Indigenous peoples are those who have had the longest relationship with any given place. They have the deepest knowledge of the plants and animals, and they are the longest-serving stewards of the land, often for 10,000 years or more. Respect for the land is an integral part of Indigenous cultures. The panelists will discuss what Indigenous writers bring to the broader conversation of poetry concerning environmental preservation, ecosystem damage, and climate change and read representative poems.
Participants
Lucille Lang Day is the award-winning author of eleven poetry collections, including Birds of San Pancho; two children’s books; and a memoir. A coeditor of two poetry anthologies, Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California and Red Indian Road West, she is the founder and publisher of Scarlet Tanager Books.
Kimberly Blaeser, past Wisconsin poet laureate, is the author of five poetry collections, most recently Copper Yearning. A professor at UW—Milwaukee and MFA faculty member for Institute of American Indian Arts, Blaeser is Anishinaabe and founding director of Indigenous Nation Poets.
Denise Low, Kansas poet laureate 2007–2009, is author of The Turtle’s Beating Heart: One Family’s Story of Lenape Survival and Jackalope, among thirty books. She copublishes Mammoth, a literary press. At Haskell Indian Nations University, Low founded the creative writing program. She is a former AWP board president.
Craig Santos Perez, PhD, is a native Chamoru from the Pacific Island of Guam. He is the author of five poetry books and the coeditor of five anthologies. He is a professor and former director of the creative writing program in the English department at the University of Hawai’i, Mānoa.
Kimberly Gail Wieser, PhD, author of Texas . . . to get Horses, is associate chair and associate professor of English at the University of Oklahoma and affiliated Native Studies faculty; director of Native Writers Circle of the Americas; and writes poems, screenplays, stories, plays, and articles.
