Janice E Kirk is available for Talks and Book Readings via ZOOM

Contact Janice Kirk

TOPICS: 

Creation Care: A Spiritual Practice:  Learn to see landscapes, inscapes, rhythms, patterns, diversity, and function of nature as a Sacred Pathway. Discover Holy Moments of wonder, beauty, and great love that reveal the scripture of nature. Value how talking to God by listening, contemplation, resting, and prayer can draw you to your place in nature and reveal your own purpose. Hear creation groaning as life systems weaken and disappear. Ready your God-given gifts and talents, your personal concerns, a course of action. Understand why Creation Care is a spiritual practice.

Plant Communities: Going, Going Gone? It’s not what’s out there; it’s what’s missing. Learn the secret of Plant Communities that keep us alive on Planet Earth. Review the fundamentals of existence: we are here because  the greenery was here first. Consider the elegant systems of plant architecture, succession/self-healing, deep-time soils, and forest rivers. Value the connections. Learn nature’s ways, the original climate action plan. Judge for yourself: let it go wild? or help with restoration? Value a win-win life style of gratitude and reciprocity, as nature heals us body, mind, and spirit.

Arts Smart: How to Improve Grades, Skills, and Emotional Health: Consider how Arts Disciplines refine the sensory input avenues of seeing, hearing, moving, and the like, while training expressive output skills of product and performance. Understand that art, music, dance, drama, and creative writing are critical to child development by means of hands-on learning experiences that build vocabulary, instill practice skills, serve as expressive outlets, and stimulate the brain function of synthesis. Pay attention to results: decades of Arts Programs validate higher test scores, self-directed behavior, the satisfactions of achievement, improved school morale, and benefits of teamwork. Evaluate the school budget wars in terms of test results, personal achievement, and turning on the light of discovery. Find out what parents can do.

Interview Q & A for “The Road to Beaver Park” PDF

Interview Q & A for “Milton the Mouse” PDF

Past Events:

DRAWING CLOSE, ENCOUNTERING JOY — AN ARTIST’S PSALMS & PRAYERS FOR THE EARTH By Janice E Kirk (Resource Publications, 2022) ZOOM Readings and Stories from the new book, 2022  

Cherish the Earth Interview/Display 
Abbey Kline, artist, Senior Art Show 2022
Winona State U., Winona, MN

The Quilt and the Creation
What do Plant Communities have in common with a quilt?
Lutheran Campus Center, Winona, MN 2022

Creation Care Bible Study
Faith Lutheran Church, Winona, MN
Text: Cherish the Earth, the Environment & Scripture, by J.E. & D.R. Kirk (Wipf & Stock: 2016)
Leaders: Pastor Katherine Chatelaine – Samsen & Janice E. Kirk

October 15-18, 2020
Climbing Higher: Endless Vistas, Unlimited Vision
26th Annual Women Writing the West Virtual Conference

June 22-27, 2020
Attended the (virtual) Northwoods Writers Conference
Bemidji State University
Bemidji, Minnesota

Oct. 10-13, 2019
Attended the 25th Annual Conference, Women Writing the West
San Antonio, Texas — womenwritingthewest.org

Nature Sketchbook No. 3, Drawing Trees and Landscapes
Wednesday, June 5, 2019, 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
East End Rec Center (note change of location)
Winona, MN 55987

Nature Sketchbook No. 2, Drawing animals
Wednesday, May 1, 2019, 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Winona Friendship Center

River Arts Alliance article, January 11, 2019: https://www.winonadailynews.com/news/local/column/janice-kirk-through-nature-i-found-the-artist-within-me/article_b2b53301-e278-5d15-b22a-6249616745ce.html

An Art Show of Watercolor Paintings:
“A Sense of Place, A Private View, and Something More”
January–February, 2019
The Friendship Center, 251 Main St., Winona, MN

October 25-28, 2018
Workshop: Set Your Compass to N for Nature Writing
Presenters: Janice E. Kirk and Evelyn Searle Hess
24TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE
http://WomenWritingtheWest.org

Lutheran Campus Center, Behold! The Drawing Lesson
The Learning Club, Winona MN, reading The Road to Beaver Park

Wabasha Public Library, Wabasha MN, reading and signing, Beaver Park

Faith Lutheran Church, Winona MN, Advent reading of The Christmas Redwood

St. Marys University of Minnesota, Arts Core Lecture, 2017

Winona Public Library Author Fair, 2017, Nature Writing Mini–workshop

23rd Annual Conference, Women Writing the West, Tucson, AZ

Art Show, Winona Public Library, Paintings from The Road to Beaver Park

Readings at Open Mic, 1st Tuesday Poet Laureate Author Nights, Blue Heron Coffee House

Faith Lutheran Church, Winona MN, Taking Care of Creation

Eco–Justice Workshop, Minnesota Council of Churches, Minneapolis

SE Minnesota Synod ELCA, Care for Creation resolution

Reprinted: The Christmas Redwood, A Forest Parable (Wipf & Stock, 2017)

Reprinted: Cherish the Earth, the Environment & Scripture (Wipf & Stock, 2016)

1st Tues. Poet Laureate Author Night, Blue Heron Coffee House, Winona MN, Reading & Book Signing

St. Marys University of Minnesota, Arts Core Lecture, 2016

Paperbacks & Pieces Bookstore, Winona MN, Reading & Book Signing

Winona Public Library Author Fair 2016

22nd Annual Conference, Women Writing the West, Santa Fe, NM, October, 2016

Photos from Past Events