Leah Naomi Green Delivers Environmental Lecture and Poetry at the Chautauqua Institution

By Brian Laubscher
August 25, 2026

Leah Naomi Green, writer-in-residence and visiting assistant professor of environmental studies at Washington and Lee University, was a featured speaker in the Chautauqua Institution's lecture series where she delivered a pair of talks.

The historic Chautauqua Lecture Series held in upstate New York is one of the oldest and most prestigious platforms in the U.S. dedicated to "engaged dialogue on matters that shape our world." Those who have taken the stage for the series include nine U.S. presidents, several Nobel laureates, celebrated poets and other influential figures such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Jane Goodall, Yo-Yo Ma and Ken Burns.

In her first talk, Green joined bestselling climate writer Katharine K. Wilkinson on stage, contributing her poetry to Wilkinson's "Climate Wayfinding " lecture.

In Green's second talk, as part of Chautauqua's Interfaith Lecture Series, she delivered a lecture on that series' theme for the week: "Spiritual Responses to a Throwaway World." Green's talk drew on her own experiences of living in an ecological community and growing food in the Shenandoah Valley, as well as her research within environmental literature and ecological Buddhist practice. She emphasized ideas from Wendell Berry, Thich Nhat Hanh and Robin Wall Kimmerer, and interspersed readings of poetry from her own work. The talk was profiled in greater detail in an article published in The Chautauquan Daily.

Green has been published and anthologized frequently over the years. She is the author of the book "The More Extravagant Feast," which was selected by Li-Young Lee for the Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets and was hailed as one of the best books of 2020 by The Boston Globe. Green has been featured on NPR's "All Things Considered" and was presented with a Treehouse Climate Action Poetry Prize as well as the Lucille Clifton Legacy Award.

A visiting member of the W&L faculty since 2009, Green earned a Master of Fine Arts in English from the University of California, Irvine, and a bachelor's degree in environmental studies from Earlham College.

The Chautauqua Institution is a nonprofit community dedicated to the exploration of the best in human values and the enrichment of life through a program that explores the important religious, social and political issues of our times. The institution's programming stimulates provocative, thoughtful involvement of individuals and families in creative response to such issues and promotes excellence and creativity in the appreciation, performance and teaching of the arts.

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