Writer Jeff Lockwood will be Mesa Verde National Parks first artist-in-residence for 2012.
Lockwood will give a free public presentation of his work Thursday, May 17, from 7 to 8 p.m. in the downstairs library of the Far View Lodge. Immediately after his readings, he will offer a one-hour writing workshop during which participants (who do not need any writing experience) will playfully explore various short-forms. The public is invited to attend the presentation, the workshop or both events.
Lockwoods journey to art began in science. He earned an undergraduate degree in biology and, enchanted by radically other forms of life, a doctorate in entomology. He was hired as an insect ecologist at the University of Wyoming, but after 20 years he metamorphosed into a professor of natural sciences and humanities with an appointment split between the MFA program in creative writing and the department of philosophy.
Lockwoods nature/spiritual essays have been published by Skinner House: Grasshopper Dreaming (2002), Prairie Soul (2004), and A Guest of the World (2006). He has written for Orion, Conservation Magazine, New York Times, and London Times. His popular science/history books, Locust: The devastating rise and mysterious disappearance of the insect that shaped the American frontier (Basic, 2004) and Six-Legged Soldiers: Using insects as weapons of war (Oxford, 2008) have been highly acclaimed. His writing has been recognized with a Pushcart Prize, a John Burroughs award, and inclusion in the Best American Science and Nature Writing. Currently, he is working on The Infested Mind (Oxford, 2013) an entomological tour of the human psyche.
Begun during Mesa Verde National Parks 2006 Centennial, the artist-in-residence program provides accomplished writers, composers, and visual and performing artists the opportunity to pursue their particular art form while being surrounded by the inspiring ancient architecture of the Ancestral Pueblo People and the sweeping natural landscape of the park. The park provides a historic, rustic residence to selected participants for 4 two-week periods each year.
For additional information about the Mesa Verde AIR program, go to the parks artist-in-residence webpage or call AIR Coordinator Frank Cope at 970-529-4607.