Wendell Berry cited on Factory Farming

Factory farms do not work in this fashion. As Wendell Berry points out in Remembering and other books, the modern industrialized farm is isolating and stringently efficient, cutting the beauty, diversity, and community out of farming in favor of profit. Oftentimes, these “factory farm” methods necessitate a copious amount of chemicals, inhumane living conditions for livestock, and tasteless produce. This is not the farming of the future—and thankfully, more and more farmers have realized this. Young farmers (where they exist) are adopting more natural, holistic, old-fashioned methods in order to succeed. But sadly, many of these ideas are only being implemented on small farms: “boutique farms,” where the tiny scale makes their costs feasible.

via The American Conservative

Wendell Berry at Kentucky Book Fair, 15 November 2014

Wendell Berry will attend the 2014 Kentucky Book Fair and sign copies of his latest title, Distant Neighbors: The Selected Letters of Wendell Berry and Gary Snyder.

via Kentucky Book Fair

Meeting Wendell Berry

A few weeks ago, I met the man himself. I traveled with some other members of EcoTheo to Northern Kentucky for a conference which featured Wendell Berry as the speaker. Hosted by an organization known as the Au Sable Institute (ausable.org), the weekend focused on bringing together a group of graduate students from all over the country around the theme of Christianity and the sciences. On Saturday, Berry came to join us for a Q&A session.  Stomping in from the cold Kentucky air, Wendell arrived with kind eyes and a sharp wit.  Berry’s responses to our questions ranged broadly from discussions of ancient poetry, to farming legislation, to wisdom he has gained over the years on the writing life.  Following the session, I strolled up to Wendell with a false sense of calm and shook the hand of a man who has transformed my life through his words.  Though my personal interaction with Berry lasted just a few moments, I learned two valuable lessons from him over the course of my time in Kentucky.

Read more at EcoTheo Review

See also here.

Another Italian Review of Wendell Berry's Jayber Crow

Quando le recensioni online sottolineano di aver intercettato un gran bel libro, solitamente il giudizio si limita al romanzo, alla storia o allo stile, in questo caso invece devo fare l’elogio anche al libro stesso. L’oggetto libro Jayber Crow di Wendell Berry, edizioni Lindau, è davvero bello, rifinito, curato nei dettagli, accompagnato da mano esperta come da tempo non mi capitava di incontrare.

Ma torniamo alla storia, poiché l’autore stesso scrive nelle prime pagine che chiunque cerchi di analizzare, spiegare, interpretare il suo lavoro verrà mandato in esilio su un’isola deserta in compagnia di altri interpretatori suoi simili, sia mai, mi limito a consigliarne la lettura senza troppi giri di parole e complesse teorie. Jayber Crow di Wendell Berry è un bel romanzo, punto.

Read more HERE.

Wendell Berry's Jayber Crow reviewed in Italian

Questo è quello che mi è successo con “Jayber Crow” di Wendell Berry, che poi, a pensare che l’autore è un vecchio contadino subentrano anche delle questioni irrisolte con la morte di mio nonno al quale ero molto affezionato. Succede anche questo con un libro, anzi, succede anche questo con un buon libro. E “Jayber Crow” ha tutto per essere considerato un buon libro e se il 2014 finisse oggi dovrei per forza di cose considerarlo come uno dei libri più interessanti letti nell’arco di quest anno.

Read more HERE.

See also "Jayber Crow di Wendell Berry, edizioni Lindau. Un gran bel libro"  (Anna Fogarolo)

Wendell Berry to speak at SAMLA in November

On Friday, November 7, 2014, Wendell Berry will speak at a plenary session of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA) in Atlanta. The conference theme this year is “Sustainability and the Humanities.”

The South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA) is an organization of teachers, scholars, and graduate students dedicated to the advancement of teaching and literary and linguistic scholarship in the modern languages. SAMLA membership extends throughout the southeastern United States and includes members from across the country and around the world. South Atlantic Review, formerly the South Atlantic Bulletin, was established in 1935 as the official publication of SAMLA.

For more information, go to SAMLA. 

Appreciating Wendell Berry's Jayber Crow

 In the endpapers of some of the books there are maps and family trees of the imaginary township; I happen to know, for example, that after work Jayber would have passed Nathan Coulter’s house and then the Rowanberry farm on his walk down to the River, where he would have turned right to get home to his little river shack called Camp House. After 384 pages it feels like I know (and care) as much about Jayber as I do about anyone I’ve ever met. If you’re still not sure Port William is a place you’d like to visit, let me put it this way: imagine a whole series of stories about hobbits, and Port William is the Shire.

Read more at TGC