Welcome to a research seminar on February 23, 14.30-16, in PA 238.

Our speaker will be Ann-Fisher Wirth, who will speak on "American Ecopoetry Now":

In this talk she will focus on three contemporary American poets whose work addresses issues of climate change and environmental/political crisis in a number of exciting ways. Camille Dungy is an African American poet and essayist; in her most recent book of poems, Trophic Cascade, she writes about the legacy of racism and her own entry into motherhood in conjunction with various aspects of environmental damage. Craig Santos Perez is from Guam; in his series of books (all of which bear the title From Unincorporated Territory), he details the legacy of Spanish colonialism, the current ubiquitous American military presence, and their effects on both the island's ecology and traditional Chamoru culture. Brenda Hilllman, who is Caucasian and lives in California, is an internationally recognized poet and activist whose many books of poetry explore virtually every aspect of American politics and the environmental crisis. Formally experimental, passionately engaged, these three widely acclaimed poets are at the forefront of American environmental writing.

Ann Fisher-Wirth recently retired from the University of Mississippi, where she taught in the MFA program and directed the Environmental Studies program. Her seventh book of poems, Paradise is Jagged, will be published in February by Terrapin Press. With Laura-Gray Street she coedited The Ecopoetry Anthology, published by Trinity University Press early in 2013; a third edition was published in January 2020. Ann has held a senior Fulbright lectureship to the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, as well as the Fulbright Distinguished Chair at Uppsala University, Sweden. In 2006 she was President of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment. Recently she coedited a collection of ecowriting and eco-art from Africa, Asia, Latin America, Oceania, and the American South with Laura-Gray Street and regional editors Mildred Barya, Esther Vincent, Juan Carlos Galeano, and Craig Santos Perez, for the journal The Global South.

We will continue our discussions over drinks and snacks in the PA corridor after the seminar. All are heartily welcome!

Best regards
Sheila Ghose and Mattias Pirholt, organizers of the Higher Seminar for English and Litteraturvetenskap