Talking Gourds: Bardic Trails (virtual), Featuring Utah’s Eirene Hamilton, 10/1!

26 Sep Talking Gourds: Bardic Trails (virtual), Featuring Utah’s Eirene Hamilton, 10/1!

Talking Gourds announces the Bardic Trails virtual poetry series continues with Eirene Hamilton of Bluff (UT) as the featured reader. Event takes place Tuesday October 1 at 7 pm MT.

No longer needing to register with the library, participants are encouraged to visit here to get the zoom link each month, if they aren’t already on the mailing list.

Bardic Trails is a project of the Telluride Institute’s Talking Gourds Poetry Program, in collaboration with Telluride’s Wilkinson Public Library.

Go here for more about Talking Gourds.

Eirene Hamilton

As Eirene would begin: “Ta’neeszahnii nilí. Bit’ahnii yáshchíín. Tábaahá dabicheii. Naakaiidine’é dabinálí.”

Utah Diné Eirene Nakai Hamilton is a continuous San Juan River valley resident. Retired from 30 years of teaching, she now devotes time to writing, gardening, ethno-botany and artistic ventures. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in English and Education from Abilene Christian University. She was also a Bilingual and TESOL-endorsed educator most of her teaching career.

Working as an educator in Arizona, Eirene became literate in her first language, Diné Bizaad. Many of her written works are bilingual pieces. Her short stories and poems have been published in University of Arizona Press’ Suntracks and Diné Reader (2021); Bilingual Resources, Sacajawea: Translator and Guide published by Modern Curriculum Press; Satchel Story Objects; WET, An Anthology of Water Poems and Prose from the High Desert and Mountains of the Four Corners Region; and FERTILE An Anthology of Earth Poems and Prose from the High Desert and Mountains of the Four Corners Region, and online, the Canyon Echo.

As a former member of the Four Corners Poets and the Bisti Writing Project, Eirene supports community literacy and enjoys facilitating writing workshops for young writers. Volunteering in Grand Canyon Trust conservation projects greatly expanded her knowledge of botany and desert springs habitats. She is a board member of Project 1100, a nonprofit founded by botanist and mentor, Dr. Mary O’Brien. Project 1100 advocates for the robust survival of 1100 species of Utah native bees and countless others in the western United States.

In her home community of Bluff, Eirene volunteers at an established community garden, a happy union of plants and pollinators!

Bardic Trails has undergone some recent changes. Talking Gourds is now solo hosting the virtual zoom series on the first Tuesday of each month, although the Wilkinson Public Library will continue as a collaboration partner and fiscal agent.

Also, San Miguel County Poet Laureate Joanna Yonder recommends as prompt this month: “Inward-Outward.”

Other Talking Gourds projects include the Stories & Poems Norwood live reading series in collaboration with the Lone Cone Library on the third Wednesday of every month; the Stories & Poems Naturita in collaboration with the Naturita Community Library on the third Sunday of every month; the national Fischer Poetry Prize contest and the state/national Cantor Poetry Prize contest (both now closed until April); the Western Slope Poet Laureate award in collaboration with Grand Junction’s Center of the Arts (given every two years); the San Miguel County Poet Laureate collaboration (given every two years); the annual Karen Chamberlain lifetime achievement award given in collaboration with the Mountain Words Festival of Crested Butt; and the MycoLicious MycoLuscious MycoLogical Poetry Show in conjunction with the annual Telluride Mushroom Festival.