Earth Words returns April 8 — grab your free tickets!

[Stonebrook, Shelley J]

Last year, Spring Creek Project launched Earth Words, an evening celebrating extraordinary environmental writing. People who have followed our programs for years — and many attending for the first time — told us it was one of the most memorable events of the year: poetic, grounding, and deeply inspiring.

We're delighted to share the incredible lineup of readers who will be joining us for the 2026 Earth Words, which will be held on April 8 in the Detrick Concert Hall at PRAx. Free and open to all!

We invite you to share the event page out with friends and reserve your free tickets here. 

Featured Writers

Marina Richie is the author of Halcyon Journey: In Search of the Belted Kingfisher, winner of the John Burroughs Medal for Distinguished Nature Writing, and the forthcoming title Feathered Forest: Aloft with Birds in Ancient Trees. Her articles, essays, and poems have appeared in National Wildlife, Audubon, Birding, Center for Humans and Nature, and elsewhere. Through prose and poetry, Marina seeks to bridge the divide separating people from nature.

Ferris Jabr is the New York Times bestselling author of Becoming Earth and a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine. Ferris has also written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, National Geographic, and Scientific American, among numerous other publications. He has received fellowships from Yale, MIT, and UC Berkeley, as well as grants from the Pulitzer Center and the Whiting Foundation. His work has been anthologized in four editions of The Best American Science and Nature Writing.

Rena Priest is the author of the new essay collection Positively Uncivilized. She served as the 6th Washington State Poet Laureate (2021-2023) and is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including the 2024 Washington State Book Award, the 2020 Allied Arts Foundation Professional Poets Award, and the 2018 American Book Award. She has been named the Maxine Kushing Gray Distinguished Writing Fellow by the University of Washington Libraries and has also received fellowships from the Academy of American Poets and Indigenous Nations Poets.

11 Garrett Hongo is a poet, Distinguished Professor at the University of Oregon, and author of several books of memoir and poetry, including his latest collection Ocean of Clouds. His previous titles have received wide acclaim, including being named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for The River of Heaven. His work has been recognized with fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Lauren Markham is a journalist, fiction writer and essayist who has won the Ridenhour Book Prize and the Northern California Book Award, among many other honors. Her most recent title Immemorial is a speculative essay on language in the face of climate catastrophe: how we memorialize what has been lost and what soon will be, pushing public imagination into generative realms.⁠ Markham's writing has appeared in Harper's, The New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, The New York Review of Books, Orion, The Atlantic, among other outlets, and has been featured on This American Life.

Jennifer Sahn will emcee the 2026 Earth Words. Sahn is an award-winning editor with a passion for illuminating and inspiring stories — particularly those that have the power to help make the world a better place. She is currently the editor-in-chief of High Country News and has formerly been editor of Orion. She has worked with some of the most celebrated environmental writers of our times, including Terry Tempest Williams, Rebecca Solnit, and David James Duncan.

Doors open at 6 p.m. for Happy Hour in Toomey Lobby, which will include live music, drinks and snacks for sale, and a book sale from Grass Roots Books featuring all the titles of the evening's writers. RESERVE YOUR FREE TICKETS NOW

Reserve Your Tickets to Earth Words