Exploring Decolonial Ecopoesis and Sacred Ecology in the Verdant
Publication information:
Abstract
Book Talk: What arises at the intersection of ecological entanglement and the sacred? This presentation asks how sacred ecology emerges in "the verdant" (Middle Creek Publishing, 2024), a work of lyrical ecopoetics that rejects anthropocentric hierarchy and articulates the northwestern US high desert biome as multivocal ceremonial space. Themes include co-creativity, the poem as reparative site, and interspecies being as spiritual medicine.
Presenter Biography
Linda Russo is a poet, scholar, essay-writer, willing co-creator/collaborator and a student of ecospheric care. Through the lenses of ecofeminism, geopoetics and inspired by Indigenous practices of interspecies kinship, her place-based works explore relationality with the more-than-human world. Their most recent book, the verdant, was awarded the Halcyon Award for Poetry from Middle Creek Publishing. She co-edited Counter-Desecration: A Glossary for Writing Within the Anthropocene (Wesleyan University Press). She teaches at Washington State University.