Landward
with Catherine Young
Thursdays around 8:25AM
Catherine Young is a performing artist and writer whose life is devoted to protecting water. Trained in fluvial geomorphology, Catherine worked as a national park ranger, naturalist, educator, farmer, and mother before completing her MFA in creative writing in British Columbia. Her prose and poetry has been nominated for Pushcart Prize and Best American Essays and is published internationally and nationally, including in the anthologies The Driftless Reader and Contours. She is the author of the memoir of place, Black Diamonds: A Childhood Colored by Coal (Torrey House Press)and the ecopoetry collection Geosmin (Water’s Edge Press, Midwest Book Awards Silver Medal).
Rooted in farm life, Catherine lives with her family in Wisconsin’s Driftless bioregion. Her podcasts and writings can be found at: www.catherineyoungwriter.com/
June 4th, 2026
Wisconsin’s tallgrass prairies are so alive and full of sound in summer. Margaret Rozga considers this in her poem WALKING THE PRAIRIE. Catherine Young shares her poem JUNE IN BUDDY’S PRAIRIE capturing the blue of June in the Faville Grove Sanctuary. Her poem was written for the Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance.
May 28th, 2026
In her acrostic poem TWO WHEELS AND A VIEW ACROSTIC ON THE GLACIAL DRUMLIN TRAIL Nancy Jorgensen uses the letters naming the trail to go on a poetic and imaginative railroad journey.
May 21st, 2026
If you fish for trout are you a trout fisherman? That’s the question Jim Landwehr poses in his poem TROUT FISHING IN THE DRIFTLESS AREA.
May 14th, 2026
Have you ever considered just how much food is produced in Wisconsin and how good it is? Poet Nancy Austin gives us a tour in FIVE HUNDRED FIFTY K CHOLESTROL RUN.
May 7th, 2026
Lisa Vihos portrays one Wisconsin city in her poem A NIGHT IN EAU CLAIRE.
April 30th, 2026
Those of us who live in Wisconsin watch the changes as farmsteads fade and trees overtake farms in real time. Ashley Meehan-Fanning portrays this in her poem NATURAL PERDITION.
April 23rd, 2026
In HOPE IS THE VIXEN FOX, Jenna Rindo considers motherhood as fierce as well as full of grace — for the vixen as well as humans.
April 16th, 2026
In his poem WHERE YOU FEEL MOST CONNECTED TO THE LAND? Curt Meine gives his answer lyrically naming the places he feels most connected to.
April 9th, 2026
In LANDSCAPE OF HOME poet Nancy Noelke speaks directly to her place, the Upper Mississippi River Valley.
April 2nd, 2026
In her poem EVEN WHILE STILL Megan Muthupandiyan praises the northern leopard frog as a holy being.
March 26th, 2026
Tim Moder gives poetic instruction for collecting stone in his poem HOW TO FIND AN AGONY ON THE BEACH AT DUTCHMAN’S CREEK.
March 19th, 2026
In his poem ON THE VERNAL EQUINOX WITH SNOW SHOWERS EXPECTED, DeWitt Clinton considers creatures as he drives each day across the Kettle Moraine.
March 12th, 2026
Macy Washow considers names we give to place over time in her poem NAMES THAT SHAPE US.
March 5th, 2026
Freesia McKee considers the water that moves beneath our feet through stone in her poem SKUNK HOLLOW MINE.
February 26th, 2026
Scott Lowery captures the textures, sounds, light, shadow, and the glide of cross-country skiing in his poem NOT QUITE TOO LATE.
February 19th, 2026
Driving the road to a loved one’s late-in-life bedside can raise many memories at dusk captured in Jane Harred’s poem TWILIGHT.
February 12th, 2026
Tim Moder fits the world of moments of all the creatures and ever-connected histories of one place into his poem SERAPHIM OVER THE GLACIAL SPILLWAY.
February 5th, 2026
Isaiah Janisch’s poem MASTODON was inspired by the piece mastodon skin and hair sample that was discovered near
Milwaukee Wisconsin in the 1980.
January 29th, 2026
The loss of the farm is one story of a family’s history in Kate Maude’s poem Around 1960 My Grandfather Lost the Farm.
January 22nd, 2026
Ice fishing requires a lot of waiting in Joseph Radke’s poem ICE FISHERMEN OF OCONTO FALLS.
December 15th, 2026
Liz Rhodebeck describes her favorite kind of winter — a strong one — in her poem MINUS TEN DEGREES OF BLISS.
January 8th, 2026
The poem is named for the place: FOND DU LAC by Paula Sergi.
January 1st, 2026
2 poems to celebrate Wisconsin outdoors in the long slow month of January, day or night: a poem from Kate Maude, JANUARY IN LITTLE PLUM and a poem from Deb Johnson, NIGHT GAME
December 25th, 2025
Taste and place are part of the FOREST INFUSION by Joe Scheder.
December 18th, 2025
In WINTER SONG by Paula Sergi water becomes magical in winter.