Wild Words
Copies of Wild Words are no longer available. Sign up for HK's e-news and follow HK on Facebook and Instagram for updates on upcoming poetry books.
About Wild Words
Through poetry, Wild Words celebrates the innate relationship Kansans have with the prairie. During the summer of 2023, Humanities Kansas partnered with Kansas cultural organizations to distribute free copies of this original poetry chapbook within their communities.
The chapbook features 11 poems inspired by Kansas native plants and wildflowers with original illustrations by Melissa Dehner, followed by questions to engage readers in humanities-themed conversations.
This collection of poems is an invitation to listen to the call of native plants in Kansas, to the specific places where we make our homes and live in community with many human and other-than-human co-inhabitants.
––Megan Kaminski, editor of Wild Words
Poetry by Gwendolyn Brooks, CAConrad, Gary Jackson, Canese Jarboe, Megan Kaminski, Aubrey Streit Krug, R.B. Lemberg, Huascar Medina, Janice Northerns, James Thomas Stevens, and Wyatt Townley. Edited by Megan Kaminski. Botanical advising by Courtney Masterson.
Wild Words is made possible by the Humanities Kansas Friends of the Humanities, the Sunflower Foundation, the Elizabeth Schultz Environmental Fund of the Douglas County Community Foundation, Kansas Tourism, and Native Lands Restoration Collaborative.
Wild Words Statewide Partners
Our thanks to the following cultural partners for their distribution of the book in summer 2023. (Contact organizations directly to confirm copies are still available.)
Baker Wetlands Discovery Center, Lawrence
Beach Museum of Art, Manhattan
Brewster Place Senior Living, Topeka
Brown County Historical Society, Hiawatha
Coffey County Library, Gridley Branch
Coffey County Library, LeRoy Branch
Coldwater-Wilmore Regional Library
Dorothy Bramlage Public Library, Junction City
Ellinwood Community Historical Society
Eudora Area Historical Society
Horace Greeley Museum, Tribune
Marais de Cygne Education Center, Pleasanton
Medicine Lodge Historical Society
Mid America All Indian Museum, Wichita
Morton County Library, Elkhart
Native Lands Restoration Collaborative, Lawrence
Norton County Arts Council, Norton
Republic County Historical Society, Belleville
Riley County Historical Society, Manhattan
Wilson County Old Iron Club, Fredonia
Final Report is due November 1, 2023. (What is Cost Share? Click here to learn more)
For more information, contact Leslie VonHolten, Director of Grants & Outreach, LVH@humanitieskansas.org.
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