Speakers

Dr. Joan Maloof

Joan Maloof is a writer, an ecologist and a conservationist with a unique voice in today’s times. She has studied and worked with plants her entire life; her formal education includes a bachelor’s degree in Plant Science, a master’s degree in Environmental Science, and a Doctorate in Ecology. She is a professor emeritus at Salisbury University where she taught Biological Sciences and Environmental Studies. Maloof is the author of numerous research articles and five books: Teaching the Trees (2005), Among the Ancients (2011), Nature’s Temples (2016) The Living Forest (2017) and the forthcoming Treepedia (2021). In addition to her research and writing, Maloof founded an organization with the goal of creating a network of protected forests across the US; that organization, the Old-Growth Forest Network, now has thousands of supporters. Maloof works to educate others regarding the extent and condition of our forests, and to encourage their preservation.

Christian McEwen

Christian McEwen is the author of World Enough & Time: On Creativity and Slowing Down (2011), now in its seventh printing. She is the author/editor of eight other books, including Jo's Girls: Tomboy Tales of High Adventure, True Grit & Real Life (1997), The Alphabet of the Trees: A Guide to Nature Writing (2000), Sparks from the Anvil: The Smith College Poetry Interviews (2015), and Legal Tender: Women & the Secret Life of Money (2019). She has enjoyed residencies at Yaddo, Macdowell, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Hambidge Center, and the Millay Colony for the Arts, and received a fellowship in playwriting from the MA Cultural Council ( 2011). She lives in Williamsburg, MA, and is currently working on a new book called In Praise of Listening.

Melissa Tuckey

Melissa Tuckey, is author of Tenuous Chapel, a book of poems selected by Charles Simic for the ABZ Press First Book Prize and editor of Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology, University of Georgia Press. An Emeritus Fellow at Black Earth Institute, her honors include a winter fellowship at Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and writing awards from DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and Ohio Arts Council. Tompkins County Poet Laureate, Tuckey works at a farm in Ithaca, New York and teaches creative writing.

Dr. Simon Wilson

Simon Wilson is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Education at Canterbury Christ Church University in the UK, and a member of the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies at Cambridge, UK. He has a special interest in landscape, co-creation, love of learning, spirituality, and the true nature of sustainability. He has published on these topics in Prioritizing Sustainability Education(2020), edited by Joan Armon, Stephen Scoffham and Chara Armon, and Greening the Paranormal(2019), edited by Jack Hunter. He is the editor, with Angela Voss, of Re-enchanting the Academy (2017). 

Dr. Lis McLoughlin

Lis McLoughlin holds a BS in Civil Engineering, an MEd in Education, and a PhD in Science and Technology Studies. She founded NatureCulture whose mission is to bring people in closer right relationship with Nature, and through which she directs the Writing the Land project. Her published works include an edited anthology: Honoring Nature; academic articles; poems; personal essays; a stage performance; book chapters; and a monthly newspaper science page. In her spare time Lis organizes the annual Authors and Artists Festival, serves on the Northfield (Massachusetts) Historical Commission, and writes poetry. She lives off-grid in Northfield, Massachusetts and part-time in Montréal, Québec. 

Robert Eugene Perry

Robert Eugene Perry is a native of Massachusetts. His most recent book of poetry Surrendering to the Path, was published by Human Error Publishing (2020). Perry hosted a poetry group for disabled individuals at the former New England Dream Center in Worcester MA, and has emceed the monthly Open Mic at Booklovers’ Gourmet in Webster MA since May 2017. Three of his poems were included in the 2021 Honoring Nature anthology by NatureCulture/ Human Error Publishing. Two poems were included in Poetica Magazine’s 2020 Mizmor Anthology regarding spirituality and nature. His poem “Quest” was the January 2019 Poets of Mars winner.