Lynne Heasley in conversation with Keith Taylor
Thursday, August 18, 7:00-9:00 p.m. EST
The Library of the Great Lakes in collaboration with Ox-Bow House is delighted to present Lynne Heasley, author of The Accidental Reef and Other Ecological Odysseys in the Great Lakes, in conversation with Great Lakes poet Keith Taylor.
Doors open at 7:00PM for pay-what-you can refreshments and Silent Auction featuring artwork by Glenn Wolff.
Dr. Lynne Heasley is an environmental historian and professor at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at Western Michigan University. Her earliest research was in West Africa. Later, she spent many years in the spectacular Kickapoo Valley of southwestern Wisconsin’s Driftless Area, for which she wrote A Thousand Pieces of Paradise: Landscape and Property in the Kickapoo Valley (University of Wisconsin Press, 2012). Today, her work centers on the more-than-human worlds of the Great Lakes. She co-edited and contributed to Border Flows: A Century of the Canadian-American Water Relationship (University of Calgary Press, 2016).
Dr. Heasley’s recent book, The Accidental Reef and Other Ecological Odysseys in the Great Lakes (Michigan State University Press, 2021), is a genre-crossing collection that foregrounds the St. Clair River, a critical connecting water and maritime corridor between Lakes Huron and Erie, and between the US and Canada. She has deep respect and affection for a river’s (and a Great Lake’s) many aquatic citizens and stewards. They are guides through the twin biodiversity and climate crises reshaping our region, and toward uncertain but more hopeful futures. She has just embarked on a new project called Dreamscapes—explorations, collaborations, celebrations, and writings about three remarkable Great Lakes landforms: alvar “pavement” grasslands on Drummond and Manitoulin Islands in Lake Huron; the St. Clair River delta forming the US-Canada border; and Great Lakes coastal sand dunes.
Keith Taylor by Doug Coomb
Keith Taylor is originally from Western Canada, but has lived for the past 45 years in Michigan. He has authored or edited 18 books and chapbooks. His most recent are Let Them Be Left (Alice Greene & Co., 2021) and Ecstatic Destinations (Alice Greene & Co., 2018). His last full-length collection, The Bird-while (Wayne State University Press, 2017), won the bronze award for the Foreword INDIES Poetry Book of the Year. His poems, stories, reviews, essays, and translations have appeared widely in North America and in Europe. He recently retired from the University of Michigan, where he taught creative writing for 20 years.
The Library of the Great Lakes is based on the geologic formation of Lakes Michigan, Erie, Superior, Huron and Ontario, transcending borders and boundaries; a library without walls. The mission of the Library is to inspire and support exploration of the science, history, literature, arts, and cultures of the Great Lakes, as a curated portal, amplifying works of and about the region.
Ox-Bow House is located at 137 Center Street, Douglas, MI and is wheelchair accessible. Main entrance is on Mixer, adjacent to the garden. COVID-19 policy: Masks are encouraged while inside Ox-Bow House, subject to change.
Ox-Bow House is a pilot project by Ox-Bow School of Art located in Douglas, Michigan. Over 2022-2024, Chicago-based architect Charlie Vinz (Adaptive Operations) will be in-residence researching and planning its transformation. Along with our head-office, Ox-Bow House will host exhibitions, public programs, workshops and symposia as well as be the future home of the institution’s archives.