Episodi

  • Episode 7 - Into Grace with Alexis Pauline Gumbs

    Episode 7 - Into Grace with Alexis Pauline Gumbs
    Oct 15 2026

    Alexis Pauline Gumbs (she/her) is a Queer Black Troublemaker and Black Feminist Love Evangelist and an aspirational cousin to all sentient beings. Her work in this lifetime is to facilitate infinite, unstoppable ancestral love in practice. Her poetic work in response to the needs of her cherished communities has held space for multitudes in mourning and movement. Alexis’s co-edited volume Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Front Lines (PM Press, 2016) has shifted the conversation on mothering, parenting and queer transformation. Alexis has transformed the scope of intellectual, creative and oracular writing with her triptych of experimental works published by Duke University Press (Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity in 2016, M Archive: After the End of the World in 2018 and Dub: Finding Ceremony, 2020.) Unlike most academic texts, Alexis’s work has inspired artists across form to create dance works, installation work, paintings, processionals, divination practices, operas, quilts and more.

    Alexis was a 2020-2021 National Humanities Center Fellow, funded by the Founders Award, and is a 2022 National Endowment of the Arts Creative Writing Fellow. Her recent book Survival is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde (FSG) was awarded the ZORA (formerly the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award) in Non-fiction and the Judy Grahn prize in Lesbian Non-fiction by Publishing Triangle. It was also named a Publisher’s Weekly Top 10 book of 2024, a Time Magazine must read book and was a finalist for the Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize and the LA Times Book Prize.

    Mentioned in this episode:

    • Milkweed Editions
    • A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars, by Erin Sharkey
    • Audre Lorde
    • Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde, by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
    • The Loft
    • Fall of the Berlin Wall
    • St. Croix
    • Dagmar Schultz
    • Audre Lorde — The Berlin Years
    • The Feminist Wire
    • Aisha Shahidah Simmons
    • Dr. Heidi R. Lewis
    • Toni Cade Bambara
    • Jamaica
    • Anguilla
    • Oracles
    • Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals
    • The Book of Kin: On Absence, Love, and Being There, by Jennifer Eli Bowen (Milkweed Editions, 2025)
    • Becoming Little Shell: A Landless Indian’s Journey Home, by Chris La Tray


    Prompt for Writing and/or Living

    Find a stone and turn it into a gift, whatever that means to you.
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    51 min
  • Episode 6 - Into Inheritance with Carolyn Finney

    Episode 6 - Into Inheritance with Carolyn Finney
    Sep 10 2026

    Carolyn Finney, PhD is a storyteller, author, and cultural geographer. A Fulbright Scholar, a Canon National Parks Science Scholar, and recipient of a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in Environmental Studies, she has served on the U.S. National Parks Advisory Board, and has held positions at Wellesley College, the University of California, Berkeley , as well as the University of Kentucky. She was awarded the Alexander and Ilse Melamid Medal from the American Geographical Society. She has published pieces in BESIDE, The Guardian, and the New York Times and has essays published in the anthologies Nature Swagger: Stories and Visions of Black Joy in the Outdoors (edited by Rue Mapp, November, 2022) and A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars (edited by Erin Sharkey). Her first book, Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors, was released in 2014.

    Mentioned in this episode:

    • Milkweed Editions
    • A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars, by Erin Sharkey
    • The Artist’s Way
    • The Acreage at Osceola
    • Horst Rechelbacher
    • Priscilla Solis Ybarra
    • Hayden Planetarium
    • Sylvia’s
    • An Inconvenient Truth
    • LGBTQ culture in the Philippines
    • Becoming Little Shell: A Landless Indian’s Journey Home, by Chris La Tray

    Prompt for Writing and/or Living

    What are the rules you imagine in a place that you’ve spent time in, that you’ve visited, but most importantly, in a place that you’ve loved?
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    56 min
  • Episode 5 - Into the Interior with Ronald Greer

    Episode 5 - Into the Interior with Ronald Greer
    Aug 18 2026

    Ronald L. Greer II is a writer and poet whose work appears in A Darker Wilderness: An Anthology of Black Nature Writing (Milkweed Press). His poems and stories have appeared in Doors Adjacent and Night Colors, among others. He’s the 2019 Pamela J. Caligiuri Broadside Award Winner and Co-editor of American Precariat: Parables of Exclusion, publishing in November 2023 (Coffee House Press). Greer spent his formative years in Detroit nurturing his grandfather’s urban garden.

    Mentioned in the episode:

    MCF-Moose Lake

    Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop (MPWW)

    Stillwater Writer’s Collective

    Nature in Detroit

    Pit bulls

    Rattlesnakes

    Spider monkeys

    A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars, by Erin Sharkey (Milkweed Editions)

    Aster of Ceremonies, by JJJJJerome Ellis (Milkweed Editions) - Aster of Ceremonies (audiobook)
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    53 min
  • Episode 4 - Into the Unknown with katie robinson

    Episode 4 - Into the Unknown with katie robinson
    Jul 23 2026

    Guest: katie robinson

    Hosts: Erin Sharkey & Michael Kleber-Diggs

    Recorded in Minneapolis (Bde Óta Othúŋwe) on unceded Dakota land.


    = BOOKS DISCUSSED =

    The Negroes Send Their Love: Poems, Perspectives, and Possible Futures, by Sean Hill (Milkweed Editions, 2026)

    A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars, edited by Erin Sharkey (Milkweed Editions 2023)


    Into a Darker Wilderness podcast

    Sponsored by Milkweed Editions

    Producer: Davi Gray

    Sound Editor: Claire Barnes


    = Guest Bio =

    Dr. Katie Robinson (any pronouns) is a writer, facilitator, scholar, and interdisciplinary artist devoted to the exploration of what is present and possible outside of the white supremacist colonial imagination. Their essay, "Here's How I Let Them Come Close," a meditation on encounters, extraterrestrials, and the creative process, was featured in A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars from Milkweed in 2023. They recently completed a PhD at Pacifica Graduate Institute, where their dissertation, Toward a New Metaphysics of Political Struggle: Explorations into Abolitionist Subjectivites, explores abolitionist praxis as an ontological project — examining how Minneapolis-based abolitionists enact decolonial, relational worlds through creative anti-carceral practice amid escalating political violence.


    = Selected Topics Discussed =

    • Kinetic Art
    • David Butler
    • Extraterrestrial conversations
    • Akashic records
    • Poetic vs. academic writing
    • New epistemologies for social justice movements
    • Episodic and nonbinary thinking
    • Grasshoppers
    • Wasps
    • Northeast Minneapolis
    • Lake Bde Maka Ska
    • Tarot and synchronicity
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    51 min
  • Episode 3 - Into the Headwaters with Sean Hill

    Episode 3 - Into the Headwaters with Sean Hill
    Jun 25 2026
    Guest: Sean HillHosts: Erin Sharkey & Michael Kleber-DiggsRecorded at Bemidji State UniversityThe Negroes Send Their Love: Poems, Perspectives, and Possible Futures, by Sean Hill (Milkweed Editions 2026)Dangerous Goods, by Sean Hill (Milkweed Editions 2014)Blood Ties & Brown Liquor, by Sean Hill (University of Georgia Press 2008)Aster of Ceremonies, by JJJJJerome Ellis (Milkweed Editions 2023)A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars, edited by Erin Sharkey (Milkweed Editions 2023)Into a Darker Wilderness podcastProducer: Davi GraySound Editor: Claire BarnesGuest bioBorn and raised in Milledgeville, Georgia, Sean Hill is the author of the collection of poems, essays, and stories, The Negroes Send Their Love: Poems, Perspectives, and Possible Futures (Milkweed Editions, 2026), and two poetry collections, Dangerous Goods, awarded the Minnesota Book Award in Poetry, (Milkweed Editions, 2014) and Blood Ties & Brown Liquor, named one of the Ten Books All Georgians Should Read in 2015 by the Georgia Center for the Book, (UGA Press, 2008).Hill has received numerous awards including fellowships from the Cave Canem Foundation, the Region 2 Arts Council, the Bush Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board, The Jerome Foundation, The MacDowell Colony, the University of Wisconsin, a Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University, and a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.Hill’s poems and essays have appeared in Callaloo, Harvard Review, New England Review, Orion, Oxford American, Poetry, Tin House, and numerous other journals, and in nearly three dozen anthologies including Black Nature and Villanelles. His poems have also been featured as part of the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day series and on The Slowdown podcast when hosted by former U.S. Poet Laureate, Tracy K. Smith. And a volume of poems selected from Blood Ties & Brown Liquor and Dangerous Goods has been translated and published in Korean.Hill has served as the director of the Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference at Bemidji State University since 2012. He is a consulting editor at Broadsided Press, a monthly broadside publisher. He has taught at several universities, including at the University of Alaska – Fairbanks and Georgia Southern University as an Assistant Professor. Hill lives with his family in southwest Montana and is an Associate Professor in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Montana.Topics mentioned:Bemidji State UniversityItasca State ParkMinnesota Northwoods Writers ConferenceIndigo GirlsUniversity of MontanaALCAN HighwayAustin DabneyLand GrantsOak trees (Quercus spp.)Paper birch (Betula papyrifera)Pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia)Identifying treesBlue jay (Cyanocitta cristata)Bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus)Identifying birds
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    1 ora e 4 min
  • TEASER: Season 1, Episode 3: Into the Headwaters with Sean Hill

    TEASER: Season 1, Episode 3: Into the Headwaters with Sean Hill
    Jun 18 2026

    It's coming! Season 1, Episode 3: Into the Headwaters with Sean Hill is scheduled to be released on Thursday, June 25.
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    1 min
  • Episode 2 - Into Soft Memories with Michael Kleber-Diggs

    Episode 2 - Into Soft Memories with Michael Kleber-Diggs
    Jun 11 2026
    Episode Two is a deep dive into the other host of Into a Darker Wilderness, Michael Kleber-Diggs, author of the poetry collection Worldly Things.Guest bioMichael Kleber-Diggs (KLEE-burr digs) (he / him / his) is the author of Worldly Things (Milkweed Editions 2021), which won the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize, the 2022 Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award in Poetry, the 2022 Balcones Poetry Prize, the 2021 Poetry Center Book Award, and was a finalist for the 2022 Minnesota Book Award. His essay, “On the Complex Flavors of Black Joy,” is included in the anthology There’s a Revolution Outside, My Love: Letters from a Crisis, edited by Tracy K. Smith and John Freeman (Penguin Random House 2021). Another essay, “There Was a Tremendous Softness,” appears in A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars, edited by Erin Sharkey (Milkweed Editions, 2023). His poems and essays often explore themes of intimacy, community, empathy, and grace, practices he believes are distinct and interdependent. Among other places, Michael’s writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Poetry, Poem-a-Day, Orion Magazine, Literary Hub, Sierra Magazine, Los Angeles Review of Books, Alaska Quarterly Review, Great River Review, Water~Stone Review, the Under Review, Poetry Daily, Poetry Northwest, Potomac Review, Spillway, and several other journals and anthologies. Michael is a past Fellow with the Givens Foundation for African American Literature, a past-winner of the Loft Mentor Series in Poetry, a Minnesota AARP 50 over 50 Honoree, and a Poets & Writers Five Over 50 honoree. Since 2016, Michael has been an instructor with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop. He also teaches Creative Writing at Augsburg University and Hamline University where he works with both undergraduate and graduate students. His work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize three times and Best of the Net once and has been supported by the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Jerome Foundation, and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council. Michael is married to Karen Kleber-Diggs, a tropical horticulturist and orchid specialist. Karen and Michael have a daughter, Elinor, who lives in New York City and works as a professional dancer.Selected references from this episode:The Givens FoundationPrestidigitationCatfishSwimmingLap swimming in the Twin Cities (Yelp) (new V3 Sports facility on the Northside)Minnesota lakesCreatures in lakesWichita, KansasOld tackle boxesSwimming while BlackMilkweed EditionsFollow Into a Darker Wilderness wherever you get your social media (⁠Instagram⁠, ⁠Facebook⁠, ⁠Bluesky⁠, ⁠YouTube⁠), subscribe to our newsletter, and become a member supporter at our website, ⁠IntoADarkerWilderness.com⁠ (and maybe ⁠pick up some merch⁠ while you're there 😉).
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    58 min
  • Episode 1 - Into a Darker Wilderness with Erin Sharkey

    Episode 1 - Into a Darker Wilderness with Erin Sharkey
    May 27 2026
    Episode One of Into a Darker Wilderness introduces the podcast and its inimitable hosts, Erin Sharkey and Michael Kleber-Diggs.Each episode brings a guest to the show, and for this inaugural talk we've got Erin Sharkey herself, the editor of A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars (Milkweed Editions), the anthology that provided the seeds for this new podcast.Guest bioErin Sharkey (she/they) is a writer, arts and abolition organizer, a cultural worker and a film producer based in Minneapolis. She is the co-founder with Junauda Petrus of an experimental arts collective called Free Black Dirt, and is the producer of film projects, including “Sweetness of Wild,” an episodic web film project, and “Small Business Revolution,” which explored challenges and opportunities for black-owned businesses in the Twin Cities in the summer of 2021. Sharkey has received fellowships and residencies from the Loft Mentor Series, Vona Voices, the Givens Foundation, Coffee House Press, the Bell Museum of Natural History and the Jerome Foundation. Sharkey was awarded the Black Seed Fellowship from Black Visions and the Headwaters Foundation. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Hamline University and taught for many years with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop. Erin is a cooperative member of The Fields at Rootsprings retreat. Rootsprings is a land-based cooperative caretaking space for healing and development of black, indigenous and people of color artists, activists, healers, and community centering lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer folks in central Minnesota.Selected references from this episodeFederal Works AgencyNatasha TretheweySaidiya HartmanThe Fields at RootspringsEuell GibbonsBenjamin Banneker - his 1793 Almanack and EphemerisDogon peopleLiberia (fka Banka)Buffalo, New YorkBuffalo wingsNiagara FallsFollow Into a Darker Wilderness wherever you get your social media (Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, YouTube), subscribe to our newsletter, and become a member supporter at our website, IntoADarkerWilderness.com (and maybe pick up some merch while you're there 😉).Prompt from the EpisodeNote that the prompts from our show can be used as writing prompts but are also opportunities for life prompts - something you might meditate on over a few days or use to put a practice into place in your own life.ERIN'S PROMPTJournal about nature every day for a week — reflect on it at different times and locations — see if you can hunt it out and find it in surprising ways.Can you find nature in your living room?Can you find nature in your car? Can you use your senses to locate it?Think about your own archive.What would you collect that would illustrate the important eras of your life?What would your 20s archive look like?What would the archive of the summer that you backpacked through Europe, or what would the archive of your time as a first-year teacher look like?What are the important pieces of ephemera, the little objects that could illustrate those things?What have you not collected that you wish you had collected?What are the objects that you can just remember? And how can you create evidence of that remembering in your own archive?
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    47 min