Announcing a conference about Wendell Berry

This conference marks the 50th anniversary of one of the more significant events in the life of Wendell Berry’s fictional Port William community: the loss of Andy Catlett’s right hand to a mechanized corn picker. This may seem an odd episode to inspire a conference, but as the autobiographical character in Berry’s fiction, Andy Catlett’s life story and tragic accident offer a way to consider the central drama of Berry’s imaginative work. Unlike Andy, Berry himself has the full use of both his hands, which invites readers to consider why he would narrate Andy’s life history in this way. As Andy reflects in “Dismemberment” on the meaning of this loss, he comes to the conclusion that the machine took his hand “as the price of admission into the rapidly mechanizing world that as a child he had not foreseen and as a man did not like, but which he would have to live in, understanding it and resisting it the best he could, for the rest of his life.”

Think about attending or presenting at the Christian Writer's Conference: "Complicity and Hope in Wendell Berry’s Membership" at Grove City College.

Conversation about bell hooks and Wendell Berry

Dr. Megan Feifer and Abby Houston of Berea College and Dr. Leah Bayens of The Berry Center Farm & Forest Institute offer insights into the life and work of bell hooks, her interaction with Wendell Berry, and the potential for future developments of their thought.

 

Commencement Ceremony of The Wendell Berry Farming Program of Sterling College

The Wendell Berry Farming Program, a tuition-free college degree program that started in 2019 graduated its inaugural cohort of 12 students on May 15, 2021 at the Henry County Fairgrounds in Eminence, Kentucky. Wendell Berry delivered the keynote address.

 

 

Speed Museum to show Meatyard's 'Unforeseen Wilderness" photos

Ralph Eugene Meatyard’s The Unforeseen Wilderness

August 6, 2021 – February 13, 2022

The upcoming exhibition of Ralph Eugene Meatyard’s The Unforeseen Wilderness celebrates the recent acquisition of a remarkable portfolio of 56 photographs depicting Kentucky’s own Red River Gorge.

In 1967, the Army Corps of Engineers received approval from Congress( to dam the Red River in east-central Kentucky in an effort to control decades-long flooding in the area. In response, the University Press of Kentucky commissioned poet and essayist Wendell Berry to write a book advocating the preservation of the Gorge in its natural state and engaged Lexington photographer Ralph Eugene Meatyard to produce photographs to accompany the text. Meatyard’s photographs, one of the first photographic attempts at environmental conservation in the American South, played a vital role in the decades-long effort to preserve the Gorge.

Find more information about RALPH EUGENE MEATYARD’S THE UNFORESEEN WILDERNESS at the Speed Art Museum.

Wendell Berry's work inspires UK conference

14-16 June 2020 at Brecon Cathedral, Wales UK

A cross-disciplinary conference exploring notions of conviviality, social well-being, and the good life rooted in local landscapes, heritage, and social identities. Inspired by the writings of the American agrarian philosopher, conservationist, poet, and novelist Wendell Berry, participants will explore together how local landscapes and heritage have engendered or can support sustainable communities. The conference will feature keynote lectures, interdisciplinary paper panels, and a concluding panel discussion, as well as a Cathedral tour and a possible walk taking in local landscape and heritage.

For more information visit Inhabiting Memories & Landscapes.

Wendell Berry reads "A Half Pint of Old Darling"

Many thanks to The Membership Podcast for bringing this video to our attention.

As part of Drennon Springs History Day, Henry County farmer, writer and activist Wendell Berry read his short story “A Half Pint of Old Darlin’,” from Watch with Me, a Port William Membership collection that took place in Goforth, a fictional stand-in loosely based on Drennon Springs, Kentucky.

Listen to The Membership discuss this story and "The Lost Bet" ... HERE.

Wendell Berry receives Kentucky Humanities Award

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Kentucky author Wendell Berry received the inaugural Kentucky Humanities Carl West Literary Award presented in a ceremony Thursday at the Paul Sawyier Public Library in Frankfort.

Presented by Kentucky Humanities, the literary award recognizes an individual who has made a significant impact on the literary culture of the commonwealth.

The award is named in honor of Kentucky journalist Carl West, who established the Kentucky Book Fair and was the driving force behind Kentucky’s premier literary event for more than 30 years.

Read the complete article HERE at The Lane Report.

Also see "Berry the perfect pick for Carl West Literary Award" in Frankfort's The State Journal.

Wendell Berry to join Larkspur Press anniversary celebration.

Transylvania University in Lexington, KY will be celebrating 45 years of Larkspur Press with readings by Wendell Berry, Bobbie Ann Mason, and Mary Ann Taylor-Hall. This will occur on Wednesday, October 9. Go HERE for complete information.

Responses to FPR's "Legacy of Wendell Berry" conference

In the wake of last weekend's (September 14) Front Porch Republic 10th anniversary conference on "The Legacy of Wendell Berry," some who attended have offered their reflections.

Scott P. Richert, publisher of Our Sunday Visitor, wondered about the affinity of Catholics for Wendell Berry's thought in "Incarnation and human scale."

The principle of subsidiarity — that everything should be handled at the lowest level possible — lies at the heart of Catholic social teaching. It’s what attracts Catholics who understand it to the work of localists like Mr. Berry and the Front Porch Republic. In order to accomplish anything, we must first realize that we can’t do everything. We’re called to make disciples of all nations, but the first step in doing so — and possibly the last — is to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Russell Arben Fox considers the tendency of Mr. Berry's thought to run across a range of political/ideological categories in "A Socialist on the Porch."

This gathering--the largest which FPR has ever organized, and one of their best--had Berry's life and work as its centerpiece. The 85-year-old novelist, essayist, poet, farmer, life-long Democrat, supporter of same-sex marriage, self-described "mad farmer," and all-around contrarian was interviewed by his daughter Mary and spoke with the audience at length. He is no socialist in any formal sense, that's for certain. But he is a man who, from his pastoral place in rural Kentucky, has articulated one of the greatest and most persuasive critiques of capitalism, and its ruinous environmental effects, in all American history.

September Conference on The Legacy of Wendell Berry

Front Porch Republic is hosting a one-day conference on The Legacy of Wendell Berry at The University of Louisville - Belknap Campus.

Join us in Louisville on September 14 for FPR's annual conference. This year our focus will be the life and legacy of Wendell Berry. Speakers include Wendell Berry, Mary Berry, Kate Dalton, Jason Peters, Bill Kauffman, Caleb Stegall, Gracy Olmstead, and Susannah Black.

For ticket information, go HERE.