NatureCulture®

NatureCulture LLC is a small woman-owned business in Northfield, Massachusetts. We publish the Writing the Land anthology and other books of poetry that help connect humans with the rest of Nature. Support land conservation by purchasing our books.

Mission Statement

The mission of NatureCulture® is to help humans be in right relationship with the rest of Nature. We produce media (printed anthologies, events, poetry, and presentations) that serve the environmental and social justice communities from an off-grid, solar-powered location in Northfield, Massachusetts.

Our Projects and Services

Writing the Land

a partnership between the environmental and creative communities

With support of our partnered land trusts we coordinate poets to adopt a conserved property, partnering them with that respective land trust for about a year. Poets visit these adopted properties and then create poems inspired by the land, with an anthology published at year’s end.

Writing the Land

Writing the Land: Our Story……

Before Writing the Land, there was Thinking the Land. Enjoyable, but not quite efficacious. In my off-grid cottage in a mature hemlock forest in western Massachusetts, for years I contemplated the land. And as I walked those wooded acres, feeling Robert Frost's cadences in my hiking feet, I knew that words and land wrote each other. And it occurred to me, that in this way land contributes to its own protection; that land speaks, and further, that Nature poets are trained to hear those voices.

So what does it matter, this conversation, asked the activist in me? In a time when land needs all the help it can get just to avoid being clear-cut or paved over, how can poets help the land that we love protect itself? The answer, as it so often is in Nature, is to cooperate with partners. Land Trusts, as conservers of land, bring our writing into action. By pairing poets with protected lands, we offer ourselves as conduits for the land to speak, to sing, to cry out, to comfort. 2025 is forming with 1 complete book for Washington state, 1 in conjunction with partners in New York, 1 for the island of Cayman Brac, and a nation-wide anthology. We currently have 13 anthologies, over 150 land conservation partners, and 350 poets; we are growing every day.

Writing the land is honored to be doing this essential work. We invite you to join us by exploring our website and enjoying the poetry; buying and reading the anthology; donating to your local land trust; enrolling as a poet in our project; or by hiring one of our speakers for your next event (use the form to Contact Us). Thank you for listening, protecting, and respecting the land.

---Lis McLoughlin, PhD; Director of Writing the Land , CEO NatureCulture®

Books and Publishing

books and publishing

NatureCulture® publishes the Writing the Land series and other books focused on Nature, both anthologies and single-author books by invitation.

Green Online Festivals and Events

NatureCulture® coordinates the Authors and Artists Festival as well as various poetry retreats, readings, book launches, and other events at the intersections of the environmental and creative communities. See our Calendar for upcoming events, and our YouTube channel for past events.

Speaker Pool and Event Hosting

Hire a poet or prose writer to speak at your next event, arrange for professional zoom hosting, or purchase an entire event complete with zoom hosting, ticketing, recording and speakers. Email for more information.

find a speaker

Our Team

Featured

Lis McLoughlin, PhD CEO

LIS McLOUGHLIN holds a BS in Civil Engineering, an MEd in Education, and a PhD in Science and Technology Studies. Her published writing include academic articles, poems, personal essays, a stage performance, and book chapters. Lis founded and directs NatureCulture, Writing the Land, and the Authors and Artists Festival and Poetry Retreat. She edits and publishes anthologies and other books through NatureCulture LLC. She lives off-grid in Northfield, Massachusetts and part-time in Montréal, Québec.

Elizabeth (Liz) Burton-Crow, PhD, Senior Technical Advisor

ELIZABETH M. BURTON-CROW, PhD grew up exploring the forests of the Sierra Nevada foothills alongside her feathered and four-legged kin. A profound love for Nature led her to study the field of Ecopsychology, culminating in a doctoral dissertation focusing upon the influence of captivity upon the psyches of parrots and poultry. Today, Elizabeth’s work strives to expand the frontiers of Ecopsychology by illuminating the often-unconscious forces underlying cross-species relationships through the integration of ethics, art, and science. Today she is rooted in the Pacific Northwest, with extended family including donkeys, dogs, llamas, chickens, goats, rabbits, and parrots.

Jasra (Lisa) Holsberg, Webweaver

Jasra Holsberg uses her BS in Computer Science and her creativity to pick apart tangled problems, and invent new creations in the digital and physical worlds. She has used her considerable design talents for such diverse projects as Arisia Corporate and Convention sites, role-playing worlds, Writing the Land, NatureCulture, and knitting hats for soup kitchens and shelters.

Jasra lives in Reading, MA with her people and 2 cats. They have a greenhouse, plus lots of container gardens which provide food and flowers for our enjoyment. The kittens arrived on 10/30, right before Halloween, and have been a delight every day!

David Crews, Poetry Editorial Advisor

David Crews is a writer and editor who currently resides at the edge of the Hoosic river watershed in southern Vermont, ancestral land of Muheconneok and western Abenaki peoples. He cares for work that explores wild(er)ness, preservation, land and place, and also serves as a board member with The Waterman Fund. He is author of Incantation, a limited-edition handmade chapbook designed and produced by Josh Dannin of Directangle Press (2022), Wander-Thrush: Lyric Essays of the Adirondacks (Ra Press, 2018), and High Peaks (Ra Press, 2015)—a poetry collection that catalogs his hiking of the “Adirondack 46ers” in upstate New York. Find David and his work at davidcrewspoetry.com

Rita N Estevanovich, Cayman Islands Projects Coordinator

Rita Estevanovich was born in Grand Cayman and currently resides in London, working as an actor/voice artist. She has a management background in arts development and cultural heritage preservation, and has also worked in media, marketing and sales, property management and tourism. She is an Executive Officer for Sustainable Cayman and also sits on the Film Control Board (Cayman).

Carlos Figueroa, NatureCulture Intern and E-book Designer

If there is ever one thing to know about me is that I love to draw and write. I enjoy writing and drawing stories of characters that I would like to see in a Hanna/Barbera cartoon. For example, I created an animation of police frogs from the 80’s. Something about the cartoons of the 80’s and 90’s that captures my attention to the point where I want to emulate the art style and tropes. The art style was playful. The stories were simple and lighthearted. I can go on forever about my love for animation and the artistic approach of the 80’s/90’s cartoons. If only time machines existed, right?

Jessica Fowler, Videography Intern

-Attending Hunter College for a BA in Media Studies
-Loves art and creative writing
-Lives in NYC but from a smaller city upstate New York called Middletown
-Plays on college softball team

Jesse Kabongo, Writing the Land Intern

Jesse Kabongo is attending Baruch College with a major in Finance and a Minor in Theater. His passion is the arts, and everything that has to do with it. Drama, writing, painting, music, etc. He has written short films with Reelworks that have been premiered and shown in festivals, and companies such as Harbor Pictures, and Paramount. Jesse is a ReelWorks youth Ambassador, allowing young filmmakers to gain opportunities and have their voice heard. He’s supported ReelWorks with their Gala, their Warner Bros day, their documentary screening, and many other events during the year. He has also done externships for PWC, and Accenture.

Everest Maya-Tudor, Writing the Land Intern

Hello! I'm Everest, I'm originally from Miami, but I go to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. I'm studying English Non-Fiction. I'm really passionate about nature writing and health/healthcare journalism. I also love to write, bake, and hike. After school, I plan to pursue a master's in science writing or science communication.