Poetry of Place and Ecology

Join us for an evening celebrating Earth Month with three poets whose work explores our complex relationship to nature and place. Anne Haven McDonnell, Erin Robertson, and Radha Marcum will read from their collections that engage with wilderness, changing landscapes, and the wonder and fragility of our ecosystems.

Anne Haven McDonnell

Singing Under Snow (Wheelbarrow Books, February 2026)

These are poems of queer ecology. In reckoning with a mother's aging, a breakup, or grief and disorientation in the face of the climate crisis, these poems seek a spiritual meaning in ecological belonging.

Anne Haven McDonnell grew up in Boulder, Colorado, and currently lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she teaches as a full professor at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Her most recent collection Singing Under Snow won the Wheelbarrow Prize with MSU Press (Feb. 2026). Her other books include Breath on a Coal, winner of the Halcyon Poetry Prize, and the chapbook Living with Wolves from Split Rock Press. She is co-creator of the forthcoming Rocky Mountains Literary Field Guide: Art, Ecology, and Poetry (Mountaineers Books, spring 2027). Her honors include fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, a MacDowell fellowship, and poetry prizes from Narrative Magazine, The Gingo Prize for Ecopoetry, and a Terrain.org poetry prize. Her poems appear in journals such as Orion Magazine, The Georgia Review, Ecotone, and elsewhere.

Erin Robertson

What the River May Bring (Raw Earth Ink, January 2026)

A poetic journey of healing through Alaska's interior wilderness, these poems trace rivers, dunes, burn scars, and birch forests, honoring a unique ecosystem and inviting us to pay attention to the awe rising within ourselves.

Erin Robertson teaches outdoor nature writing classes in Boulder County and serves as Writer in Residence for Friends of Coal Creek. Her poetry has been published in the North American Review, Cold Mountain Review, Poet Lore, Deep Wild, and elsewhere. Past honors include being a Voices of the Wilderness Artist in Residence at Koyukuk National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, Boulder County Artist in Residence at Caribou Ranch, and awards in the Michael Adams Poetry Prize and Columbine Poets Members' Contest.

Radha Marcum

Pine Soot Tendon Bone (The Word Works, June 2024)

An elegy for our times, Pine Soot Tendon Bone is awake to unfolding crises—from wildfires to gun violence—while locating hope in the simple but precise act of observing nature.

Recipient of the Washington Prize for Pine Soot Tendon Bone (The Word Works, 2024), Radha Marcum is the author of Bloodline (3: A Taos Press, 2017), which delves into her grandfather's involvement in building the first atomic bombs in New Mexico during World War II, winner of the New Mexico-Arizona Book Award for Poetry in 2018. Also an award-winning prose writer with a focus on health and environment, Marcum has written for American Rivers, Colorado Water Trust, Outside, and The Wilderness Society.Her poetry has been commissioned by the Clyfford Still museum and appears in journals such as Conjunctions, Quarterly West, The Kenyon Review, Poetry Northwest,The Colorado Review, and elsewhere. A Boulder resident for 25 years, she teaches at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop and privately.