Megan Kaminski


Megan Kaminski
  • Professor of English & Environmental Studies

Contact Info

Phone:
Wescoe Hall, Room 3031

Biography

Megan Kaminski is a Poet and Professor of English and Environmental Studies at the University of Kansas. She is a community-engaged poet and essayist focused on place-based, environmental justice informed, writing, arts, and contemplative practices. She is the author of three books of poetry, Gentlewomen (Noemi Press, 2020), Deep City (Noemi Press, 2015) and Desiring Map (Coconut Books, 2012) and two artists books, Prairie Divination (Sunseen Books, 2022), a book of illustrated essays and oracle deck about tallgrass prairie ecologies, and Quietly Between (A Viewing Project. 2022), a co-authored collection of poetry and photography. Her place-based sound, poetry, and art installations have appeared at museums, public gardens, and libraries across the country, and her poetry and essays regularly appear in literary magazines and journals. Her community-engaged research includes three edited volumes of nature poetry and art, as well as hundreds of community workshops, place-based poetry walks, and community readings, talks, and performances, all centered on co-creating with and within our ecosystems towards community connection, healing, and liberatory futures. 

Research

Research Interests:

  • Poetry and Poetics
  • Ecopoetry and Environmental Literature
  • Eco-arts and Eco-writing Practices
  • Plant Studies
  • Care Practices
  • Disability Poetics and Justice

Teaching

Teaching interests:

  • Creative Writing
  • Environmental Literature and Arts
  • Environmental Justice
  • Local Ecologies & Community Engagement
  • Science & the Arts
  • Ecology & Spirituality

Selected Publications

Gentlewomen, Noemi Press, 2020.

Deep City, Noemi Press, 2015.

Desiring Map, Coconut Books, 2012.

Prairie Divination (w/ artist L. Ann Wheeler), Sunseen Books, 2022.

Quietly Between (w/ Brad Vogler, Lori Anderson Moseman, and Sarah Green), A Viewing Space, 2022.   

Awards & Honors

Hall Center for the Humanities Research Fellow, 2020 and 2015.

Bernadette Gray-Little “Expanding the Reach” Award, 2019.

Finalist, H.O.P.E. (Honor for the Outstanding Progressive Educator) Award, 2019.

Scholars on Site Grant (for the Ad Astra Writing Project), 2019.

Keeler Family Intra-University Professorship, 2018.

Byron Caldwell Smith Book Award, 2017.

Spencer Museum of Art, Integrated Arts Research Initiative Faculty Fellow, 2016.

Residencies at: Dumbarton Oaks, Harvard University; Vashon Artist Residency; Arte Studio Ginestrelle; Millay Colony; Summer Forum for Inquiry + Exchange; Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts; Summer Literary Seminars