Tamara Dean spent fifteen years homesteading, living off the land in Wisconsin's Driftless Area. She and her husband built a house, grew their own food and learned a lot. That included some hard lessons about the challenges that threaten the land, the environment and people who live there. On this episode of Talk of Iowa, we'll talk with Tamara Dean, author of Shelter and Storm: At Home in the Driftless, a collection of essays inspired by her time in the Driftless.
Then, we remember poet and LGBTQ+ icon Andrea Gibson. Gibson was one of the best known spoken word poets in the nation. They published many books, released several albums, won numerous awards and was named the Poet Laurate of Colorado in 2023. Gibson identified as gender queer, and their poetry was often centered on gender norms, politics and social justice. They were diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2021, and that influenced their work in profound ways. We'll listen back to a conversation recorded in 2018, when Gibson published their collection, Lord of the Butterflies.
Portions of this episode were originally produced on Nov. 20, 2018.
Guests:
- Tamara Dean, author Shelter and Storm
- Andrea Gibson, poet
