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/
August 29th, 2024
Minnesota Poet Laureate Joyce Sutphen combs the road in search of the elusive agates in her poem IN QUEST OF AGATES from her collection Carrying Water to the Field.
August 22nd, 2024
Dioramas is from the memoir Black Diamonds: A Childhood Colored by Coal by Catherine Young, published in 2023 by Torrey House Press. The memoir looks back on childhood in a Pennsylvania coal mining valley, and Dioramas tells of the strange underground exhibit, a coal mine with mannequins.
August 15th, 2024
EFFIGY HAND is an ekphrastic poem created in response to the image of a mica carving from the Hopewell culture. The poem by Catherine Young was published by the Ekphrastic Review in 2022.
August 8th, 2024
In the poem RECOLLECTION, the poet Catherine Young both remembers and collects inside a small-town antique store. The poem is from the ecopoetry collection Geosmin published by Water’s Edge Press.
August 1st, 2024
With summer come the memories of other summers, layered on, including what is here and what is now gone. BECAUSE OF THE SUN by Minnesota Poet Laureate, Joyce Sutphen, is from her collection Carrying Water to the Field.
July 25th, 2024
Prairie restoration, the Grim Reaper, mentors, and a rusty scythe all compound the images in this poem by Tom Boswell MEDITATION WHILE CUTTING BUCKWHEAT from the poetry collection Heart on a String.
July 18th, 2024
Sometimes with the memories of lost objects if we pay attention – come the best insights – and the best stories. RESTORATION by Catherine Young is from the ecopoetry collection Geosmin published by Water’s Edge Press.
July 11th, 2024
Sometimes it’s difficult to answer a question about farming. IN ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION by
Catherine Young was published in the journal Farmerish in 2020
July 4th, 2024
East Mountain is from the memoir Black Diamonds: A Childhood Colored by Coal by Catherine Young, published in 2023 by Torrey House Press. The memoir looks back on childhood in a Pennsylvania coal mining Valley, and East Mountain tells of the relationship between the narrator and her firefighter father in the early 1960s.
June 27th, 2024
In the poem COUNTRY COMMUTE the journey across the rural landscape to the office on a June day is a hard transition. COUNTRY COMMUTE by Tom Boswell is published in his collection Heart on a String.
June 20th, 2024
The poem TWO GIRLS ON A HAYRACK captures a childhood moment, a glorious memory of high summer on a farm. The poem is by Minnesota Poet Laureate, Joyce Sutphen from her collection Carrying Water to the Field.
June 13th, 2024
Wisconfluence is a series of four poems created for the MidWay Atlas, a seven-state Midwest artist
project in 2022. BEDROCK is the contribution of Wisconsin Poet Laureate Max Garland.
June 6th, 2024
Wisconfluence is a series of four poems created for the MidWay Atlas, a seven-state Midwest artist project in 2022. WATER MEMORY is the contribution of Madison Poet Laureate Angela Trudell Vasquez.
May 30th, 2024
Wisconfluence is a series of four poems created for the MidWay Atlas, a seven-state Midwest artist collaborative in 2022. WATERWAYS is the contribution of poet Catherine Young.
May 23, 2024
How can anyone describe the colors of water as it reflects everything in our world? In the two-voiced poem COLOR OF WATER, Catherine Young explores the palette. The poem is from the ecopoetry collection Geosmin published by Water’s Edge Press.
May 16th, 2024
In the poem COMFORTS OF THE SUN by Joyce Sutphen growing up on a farm is a more intimate connection than knowing. The poem is from her collection Carrying Water to the Field.
May 9th, 2024
GIRL ON A TRACTOR by Minnesota Poet Laureate, Joyce Sutphen, is from her collection Carrying Water to the Field.
May 2nd, 2024
FIRST WORDS by Minnesota Poet Laureate, Joyce Sutphen, is from her collection Carrying Water to the Field. Sutphen names the first words of the child on a farm and the world that they build.
April 25th, 2024
TORNADO WARNING by Minnesota Poet Laureate, Joyce Sutphen, is from her collection Carrying Water to the Field.
April 18th, 2024
DEAR SKY, DEAR BLUE PLANET is a community poem created from responses to Kimberly Blaeser’s prompt at the American Geophysical Union 2022 conference as part of Poets for Science. A video of the poem and its collaborators can be viewed on YouTube.
April 11th, 2024
In almost childlike verse, the poem IN THE TIME OF CLIMATE CHANGE describes the devastation of floods in southwest Wisconsin in 2018, and it was published in Catherine Young’s ecopoetry collection Geosmin by Water’s Edge’s in 2022. DANDELIONS, also by Catherine Young, is a poem of resilience and it was anthologized in Tiny Seed Journal in 2023.
April 4th, 2024
THE BLUE IN THE DISTANCE by Minnesota Poet Laureate, Joyce Sutphen, is from her collection Carrying Water to the Field. The poet paints April’s color shift as it moves on the land.
March 28th, 2024
STRAIGHT OUT OF VIEW by Minnesota Poet Laureate, Joyce Sutphen, is from her collection Carrying Water to the Field. The poet moves us from page — to rural land — and then back again.
March 21st, 2024
In this essay, And Then I Went Back to the Land, Catherine Young takes us on a journey from the Great Depression through food co-ops considering where our food comes from and why.
March 14th, 2024
Rich in description of desert landscape, Mussentuchit Badlandsis from the memoir When I Was Red Clay: A Journey of Identity, Healing and Wonderby Jonathan T Bailey, published in 2022 by Torrey House Press.