Poets W. J. Herbert and Megan Grumbling in Conversation with Judith Selby Lang
Join the Greenpoint Library and Environmental Education Center for a discussion with poet W.J. Herbert on her new collection of poetry, Dear Specimen, a 5-part series of interwoven poems from the perspective of a dying parent to her daughter that examines themes of nature, loss, and family.
W. J. Herbert’s work was awarded the Anna Davidson Rosenberg Prize and was selected by Natasha Trethewey for inclusion in Best American Poetry 2017. Her poetry, fiction, and reviews appear in Alaska Quarterly Review, The Atlantic, Hudson Review, Southwest Review, and elsewhere. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, she was raised in Southern California where she earned a bachelor’s in studio art and a master’s in flute performance. She lives in Kingston, New York, and Portland, Maine.
Ms. Herbert will be in conversation with environmental artist Judith Selby and author Megan Grumbling.
Judith Selby Lang is committed to the creation of positive symbols and life-affirming images to energize the conversation about the effects of plastic pollution. Intrigued with the unbearable beauty that might be discovered in a snarl of fishing nets or a mess of plastic found on the beach, she is deconstructing the damaging debris where she finds treasures that she presents as objects of contemplation. While the content of her work has a message about the spoiling of the natural world by the human/industrial world, her intent is to transform this sea of troubles into something celebratory. Her ephemeral public art works have graced the San Francisco Civic Center Plaza, Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve, and Stanley Harbor, Hong Kong. Her artwork has been featured in exhibitions in galleries and museums; educational and science centers including SFMOMA's Artist Windows, California Academy of Sciences, Sausalito's Marine Mammal Center, The Oakland Museum. She lives in West Marin with Richard Lang, her husband/collaborator.
Megan Grumbling is the author of Persephone in the Late Anthropocene, a poetry volume that reimagines the ancient myth in the age of climate crisis, and which began life as an experimental opera. Her poetry collection Booker’s Point received the Vassar Miller Prize and the Maine Book Award for Poetry, and her work has been awarded the Poetry Foundation’s Ruth Lilly Fellowship and the Robert Frost Foundation Award. She lives, writes, and teaches in Portland, Maine.
This is a virtual event. Please register and you will be sent a Zoom link 2 hours before the event.
