Black Earth Institute

08/14/2026

A new poem from Elizabeth Cunningham, exploring the pantoum form! 🍃More of Elizabeth’s work: elizabethcunninghamwrites.com

08/05/2026

A wonder for the day from Erin Coughlin Hollowell

08/03/2026

🐬 New in Orion Magazine “Touch and Flow” 🌊

We are excited to share Brenda Peterson’s new essay in Orion Magazine. It’s a beautiful take on gender, sensuality and the power of touch - explored through the intimate social lives of dolphins.
A piece that will change how you think about connection.
Read it now: https://orionmagazine.org/article/touch-and-flow/ 📖

07/22/2026

🌻Calling all writers & nature lovers! AgArts 2026 Bio-Sanctuary Contest is open 🌿

Create or enhance a bio-sanctuary, from a balcony bird feeder to a wetland and tell us about it in poetry or non-fiction (500 words max) + 1-3 photos.

🏆 1st Prize: $1,000 Runner-up: $500 📅 Deadline: October 1, 2026 💵 Entry fee: $10 📖 Winners published in The Blazing Star Journal & Emerging Voices Substack

A bio-sanctuary can be tiny or huge, like a mason bee house, a pocket prairie, or a dead hedge for frogs and fungi. What matters is giving flora and fauna a place to thrive🐝🦋

Link in bio to enter → agarts.org

05/23/2026

https://aboutplacejournal.org/issues/the-ground-beneath-us/

The Ground Beneath Us: Place, Power, and Resistance is a bold and unflinching issue that centers place as a living force shaped by history, marked by power, and sustained through resistance.

05/19/2026

We are excited to share new work and recent recognition from BEI Fellow Alexis Lathem

Her newest essay, “Witness at Witless Bay,” has been published in The Hopper. Inspired by her visit to the seabird colonies off the coast of Newfoundland, the essay reflects on wildlife, observation, and our relationship with the natural world.

Read the essay here:
https://www.hoppermag.org/witness-at-witless-bay

In addition, Alexis,s book Lambs in Winter: Sketches of a Vermont Life Through Seasons of Change has been featured in a review in the current issue of Solstice.

Read the review here:
https://solsticelitmag.org/content/lambs-in-winter-sketches-of-a-vermont-life-through-seasons-of-change/

Congratulations, Alexis, on these wonderful accomplishments. We encourage our community to explore and support her work.

I had long dreamed about seeing them. In their multitudes, in the grand setting of fog-draped sea cliffs. Because they throng in such immensities. Because they belong to the fog and the salt spray. Because they belong to the sea and yet they are winged, and yet they also belong to the sky.

04/22/2026

✨ Celebrating Our BEI Fellows ✨

We’re proud to share that BEI Fellows Lauren Camp and Claudia Saleeby Savage have been recognized in celebration of Arab American Heritage Month!

Lauren Camp’s powerful poetry collections: An Eye in Each Square, Took House, and Is Is Enough explore memory, identity, and the emotional landscapes that shape our lives.
Claudia Saleeby Savage’s Metal Used for Beauty Alone is a striking, lyrical work - described as both a love utterance and a call for music as protest, healing and change.

Congratulations to both of these incredible writers! We are honored to have your voices in the BEI community and to see your work recognized on a wider stage!

Discover their work:
Lauren Camp: https://www.clmp.org/news/a-reading-list-for-arab-american-heritage-month-2026/
Claudia Saleeby Savage: https://thepoetrybox.com/bookstore/metal-used-for-beauty-alone/

For National Arab American Heritage Month, observed annually during the month of April, we asked our member magazines and presses to share with us some of the work by Arab American writers that they recommend reading in celebration.   Poetry   THALASSA by leena aboutaleb Game Over Books | 2026 ISB...

04/20/2026

Applications Are Now Open!

We’re thrilled to announce that applications are officially open for the inaugural Hellbender Gathering of Poets, taking place October 5–11, 2026 in Black Mountain, North Carolina.

This unique gathering brings together poetry, environmental science, and community, creating space for a joyful rising in our climate-changed world.

Over the course of a week, participants will learn, write and connect with an inspiring faculty including:
David Baker, Camille T. Dungy, Jane Hirshfield, Tim Seibles, Laura Boggess, Luke Cannon, and special guest David George Haskell.

Applications are rolling and close May 11 (or when full). Only 48 spots available - apply now!
To apply, you’ll need:
• A short application form
• A cover letter (max 600 words)
• Five pages of poems
• A $25 application fee

We also offer fellowships and scholarships to support accessibility.
If you feel called to write, reflect, and build community around caring for our changing planet, we would love to read your work.

Apply now: https://hellbenderpoets.org

04/16/2026

We are pleased to share a recent piece from BEI author Brenda Peterson:

“End Times for Trump and the GOP: Heaven is here”

Adapted from her memoir I Want to Be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here on Earth, this essay reflects on the intersection of faith and contemporary politics.

Read the full piece here:

Heaven is here

03/30/2026

NEWS

We’re excited to spotlight recent work from our contributor Brenda Peterson, whose writing explores timely themes of power, politics and global conflict.

“Trump as Once and Future King: The Pathology of Privilege”
A sharp reflection on leadership, privilege, and the political imagination in the age of the recent “No Kings” protests.
READ HERE: https://bpetersonauthor.substack.com/p/trump-as-once-and-future-king

“Rapture of the Iran War”
A powerful piece examining the narratives and consequences surrounding war, belief, and media framing.
READ HERE: https://bpetersonauthor.substack.com/p/rapture-of-the-iran-war

Both pieces invite us to think critically about the systems shaping our world and our place within them.

Thank you, Brenda, for sharing your work and to our BEI community for continuing to uplift bold, thought-provoking voices.

Is the U.S. war plan Armageddon?