Author Margaret Renkl to give fall 2025 Spencer Lecture
LAWRENCE — Bestselling author Margaret Renkl will present the Kenneth A. Spencer Lecture for the University of Kansas in conversation with Megan Kaminski, poet and KU professor of environmental studies.
The event, sponsored by The Commons, will take place at 7 p.m. Nov. 3 at Liberty Hall. Free tickets are now available for the event, which will be followed by a book-signing, with books for sale from Raven Book Store.
A second event earlier Nov. 3 will offer attendees an opportunity to visit a native prairie with Renkl and area land stewards.
Based in Nashville, Renkl centers themes of grief, love, loss and the American South in her work within the context of the natural world. In her biweekly New York Times columns, she keeps readers connected to the shifts of seasons around them.
She is the author of “Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss” (2019), “Graceland, at Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache From the American South” (2021) and “The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year” (2023), which won the 2024 Southern Book Prize and is a New York Times bestseller. Her latest book, “Leaf, Cloud, Crow: A Weekly Backyard Journal” (October 2024), is a companion to “The Comfort of Crows” that offers 52 writing prompts and advice for studying the natural world.
“Margaret Renkl's work demonstrates how intimate observation of the natural world becomes a practice of fierce love — love that doesn't shy away from grief or difficulty but instead transforms witnessing into action,” Kaminski said. “Her ability to hold both wonder and heartbreak, to find hope within loss, speaks to the kind of reciprocal relationship with place that I believe is essential for our time. I'm thrilled to explore with her how paying attention to our backyards can grow into a form of environmental advocacy.”
Event at Akin Prairie
A related event to Renkl's talk will take place from 2:30 to 4 p.m. Nov. 3 at Akin Prairie, a 16-acre native prairie in southeastern Douglas County. Joining Renkl and Kaminski are Patti Beedles, Kansas Land Trust conservation coordinator, and Andie Perdue, board member of the Outdoors Unscripted Festival. The event is an opportunity to learn about the tract of land and its role in prairie ecosystems, and, inspired by Renkl's work, attendees can participate in their own writing/response practice to the prairie. The event will close with a poetry reading by Kaminski, who is completing work around the site through a SOSAA (Showcasing Open Space through Accessible Adventure) grant from the Outdoors Unscripted Festival.
Those interested in riding a bus from the Lawrence campus to the event can meet at 2 p.m. at the bus stop in front of Haworth Hall. Register to attend.
About the Spencer Lecture
The Kenneth A. Spencer Lecture, hosted by The Commons, is an endowed lecture dedicated to bringing leading thinkers to address the KU and regional communities. Featured speakers have included Rebecca Solnit, Eve Ewing, Jose Antonio Vargas, Jonny Sun and Robin Wall Kimmerer.