Voices from the American Land
Program Updates

January 2021:
Voices concludes programming with the publication of “Uncivilized,” an essay by Barry Lopez.


October 2015:
Voices from the American Land is proud to announce the publication of our tenth chapbook, Joan Naviyuk Kane's The Straits. 
Launched at an October 6th event at Alaska Pacific University, The Straits will be mailed to our membership and available through our website mid-October.
Please visit Joan Kane's author page for more information and to order copies.


Prestigious WILLA Literary Award goes to Renny Golden
Voices board member Renny Golden’s book of poetry Blood Desert: Witnesses 1820–1880 (University of New Mexico Press) won the 2010–2011 WILLA Literary Award from the Women Writing the West Foundation. Congratulations Renny, for this tremendous honor!


Every Breath Sings Mountains: The Great Smoky Mountains

You are invited to join us via online video clips of the September 2011 launch party in Sylva, NC, as we celebrated the publication of our newest chapbook, which features poems by Brent Martin, Barbara Duncan, and Thomas Rain Crowe. Download the brochure for details (front, back).


Associated Writing Programs Conference
If you plan to attend the annual conference of Associated Writing Programs (AWP), don't miss the all-Voices panel called Honoring the Heartland:  Midwestern Poets Celebrate Richness of Place. Renny Golden, Quraysh Ali Lansana, Patricia Clark, Patricia Monaghan, and Summer Wood will all participate on the panel, described this way:

“Wisconsin’s Driftless Area, the hardscrabble Chicago Southside, and Michigan’s deep woods are three vital — and vitally different — landscapes within America’s Midwest. Patricia Monaghan, Quraysh Ali Lansana, and Patricia Clark, three Midwestern authors for Voices from the American Land (a publisher with a unique land conservation bent), will join Voices editors Renny Golden and Summer Wood to discuss a poetics of place that honors cultural/spiritual concerns as well as the lay of the land.”

We're proud and honored to be one of 400 panels accepted from a group of more than 1000 proposals. AWP is the premier annual gathering for creative writers in this country, drawing close to 10,000 practicing writers for 3+ days of readings, panels, an enormous bookfair, and a heady atmosphere of shared ideas and creative expression.


Summer Wood Joins Editorial Board
Prize-winning novelist and creative writing teacher Summer Wood joined the editorial board of Voices from the American Land, effective August 1, 2010. In addition to editing chapbooks, Summer will direct program development activities for the organization. She is the author of the critically acclaimed novel, Arroyo (Chronicle Books). Her current novel, Wrecker, was published by Bloomsbury in February 2011. Summer has taught creative writing at the University of New Mexico's Taos Summer Writing Conference, and has served as guest writer at the University of California, Davis. She has studied at Stanford University and the University of New Mexico, and has received many awards for her work, notably the $50,000 “Gift of Freedom” award from A Room of Her Own Foundation. Summer Wood lives in San Cristobal, New Mexico. With her partner Kathy Namba, she has raised three sons and served as a foster parent through New Mexico's Child Protection Services. For more, see her blog for readers and writers who care about place at www.summerwoodwrites.com.


A New Partner for Voices
In order to provide a corporate home and tax-exempt status for Voices from the American Land, the program's editorial board and the board of directors of The Center for the Study of Place, Inc.,  have agreed that the Center will become fiscal agent and corporate sponsor for Voices from the American Land effective immediately. New Mexico Literary Arts provided tax-exempt status on a temporary basis during the start-up period. The Center, which was co-founded by Voices editor Charles Little in 1990, operates retreat centers for authors; sponsors literary, art, and photography programs; conducts place-oriented research; and organizes forums and tours relating to landscape design and cultural geography. The Center's board includes its founder, George F. Thompson, a publisher and Voices advisor; Thomas C. Hunt, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Platteville; Lucy Lippard, an art critic and author from Galisteo, N.M.; Franklin T. Roberts, a principal in an accounting firm in Raleigh, N.C.; Martha A. Strawn, Professor Emerita, University of North Carolina, Charlotte; Joan Woodward, Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of California, Pomona; and William Wylie, Associate Professor of Art, University of Virginia, Charlotte. The Center, a 501(c)(3) organization, is incorporated in New Mexico, with offices in Santa Fe and Staunton, Virginia. (Posted 6-7-10.)