News Service

02-03-05

Iowa State to host free public creative writing symposium Feb. 20 - 22

AMES, Iowa -- The Iowa State University Creative Writing Program will hold a free public symposium on "Wildness, Wilderness and the Creative Imagination" in the Memorial Union Sunday to Tuesday, Feb. 20 - 22.

"We'll be exploring the twin subjects of wildness and wilderness -- how they differ and where they intersect -- and examine how we might find and imagine them in our lives and creative writing," said associate professor of English Debra Marquart, symposium coordinator.

Events kick off with the performance, "On Remnants of the First Earth: The Meskwaki Landscape in Words, Song and Dance," at 8 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 20, in the Sun Room. Performers will include Ray and Stella Young Bear, Tama, and the Black Eagle Child Dance Troupe, also of Tama.

Other events will include panel discussions and readings:

Monday, Feb. 21, Oak Room

• 9 a.m. -- "The Practice of the Wild: Imagining Wild(er)ness." Panel members: Roger Gipple, Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation; Jack Dekker, ISU professor of animal science; and Mark Edwards, communications officer, Little Green Frogs Foundation; with Marquart as moderator. The panel will discuss how "wildness" and "wilderness" differ and intersect.
• 10:45 a.m. -- "Dwellings: Wildness in the House" Panel members: Jim Pease, assistant professor of natural resource ecology and management; Sara Gregg, assistant professor of history; and Fred Kirschenmann, director of ISU's Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture; with moderator, Sheryl St. Germain, associate professor of English and director for the Center for Excellence in Arts and Humanities. The panel will examine the intellectual, historic and aesthetic frameworks of wildness and human habitation.
• 1:30 p.m. -- "Readings by ISU Creative Writing Faculty and Wild Iowa Essay Award Winners," with Mary Swander, Distinguished Professor of English; Stephen Pett, associate professor of English; and Robert Tremmel, professor of English.
• 3:30 p.m. -- "The Artist as Outlaw." Panel members: John Monroe, assistant professor of history; Paul Griffiths, assistant professor of history; and Teresa Paschke, assistant professor of art and design; with moderator, David Zimmerman, assistant professor of English. The panel will consider wildness as it pertains to writers and artists.
• 8 p.m. -- "Linda Hogan: Reading/Lecture." A reception and book signing will follow.

Tuesday, Feb. 22, Sun Room

• 9 a.m. -- "Wildness and the Literary Imagination." Panel members: Linda Hogan, poet, essayist and novelist; Gary Snyder, poet and essayist; and Sheryl St. Germain, moderator. The panel will explore the synergetic relationships between the literary and the wild.
• 10:45 a.m. -- "Naming the Nameless: Blaming the Blameless: Divining the American Wild." Panel members: Julia Badenhope, associate professor of landscape architecture and natural resource ecology and management; James Pritchard, adjunct assistant professor of landscape architecture and natural resource ecology and management; author of "Preserving Yellowstone's Natural Conditions," and co-author of "A Green and Permanent Land: Ecology and Agriculture in the Twentieth Century; and Pett, moderator. The panel will discuss American perspectives on the wild in literature.
• 1:30 p.m. -- "Readings by ISU Creative Writing Faculty and Wild Iowa Essay Award Winners." Participating will be St. Germain, Marquart, and Zimmerman.
• 3:30 p.m. -- "Spiritual Connections to the Land." Panel members: Nikki Bado-Fralick, assistant professor of philosophy and religious studies; Charles Carpenter, Zen monk, beekeeper, and freelance writer; and Mary Ellen Moore, author of "Lakota Woman," and Swander, moderator. From a variety of spiritual traditions, panelists will examine the inter-connectedness of humans to their natural environments.
• 8 p.m. -- "Gray Snyder: Reading/Lecture." A reception and book signing will follow.

For more information on the symposium, visit http://www.engl.iastate.edu/graduatestudies/CWsite/events/events.html.

View map showing the location and parking area for the Memorial Union. For more information, call (515) 294-3173.

The symposium is sponsored by ISU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Committee on Lectures (funded by the Government of the Student Body), Office of the President (Miller Lecture Endowment), the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation (AGRESTAL Fund), LAS Miller Lecture Fund, and the ISU departments of English, history, landscape architecture, geological and atmospheric sciences and ecology, evolution and organismal biology.

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Quick look

The Iowa State University Creative Writing Program will hold a free public symposium on "Wildness, Wilderness and the Creative Imagination" in the Memorial Union Sunday to Tuesday, Feb. 20 - 22.