HAYS, Kan. – The Kansas Wetlands Education Center will host Poetry Pocket Field Guide: World Bird Migration Day, a creative, nature-based writing workshop, on Sunday, April 26, at 3 p.m. The event will take place at the Kansas Wetlands Education Center, located 10 miles northeast of Great Bend at the Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area.
Designed for participants of all experience levels, the workshop blends birdwatching, walking, and creative writing during one of the most active migration periods of the year. Attendees will create and decorate small, pocket-sized field guides to record observations of migrating birds, the surrounding landscape, and personal reflections.
The event includes a guided walk through Cheyenne Bottoms, where participants will read poetry, observe wildlife, and engage in a generative walk-and-write experience. The resulting notes, images, and lines gathered during the walk can be shaped into poems, offering both a creative outlet and a deeper connection to the natural world.
The workshop will be led by Traci Brimhall, professor of creative writing at Kansas State University and one of Kansas’ most celebrated contemporary poets. Brimhall is the author of five poetry collections, including Love Prodigal (Copper Canyon Press, 2024). Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Nation, Orion, The New Republic, Poetry, The New York Times Magazine, and Best American Poetry.
Brimhall has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Park Service, the Academy of American Poets, and Purdue University Libraries’ Special Collections, where she studied the lost poem drafts of Amelia Earhart. She is currently the poet-in-residence at the Guggenheim Museum and the poet laureate of the State of Kansas.
The Kansas Wetlands Education Center is affiliated with Fort Hays State University’s Werth College of Science, Technology and Mathematics and plays a key role in environmental education, conservation, and public engagement at Cheyenne Bottoms, one of the most important inland wetlands in North America for migratory birds.
World Bird Migration Day is an international celebration highlighting the importance of migratory birds and the habitats they depend on. This workshop offers a unique opportunity to honor that mission through creativity, observation, and reflection.
Additional details about the event and the Kansas Wetlands Education Center can be found at wetlandscenter.fhsu.edu.
About Fort Hays State University
Fort Hays State University is committed to educational excellence and public engagement through innovative programs, research, and community partnerships across Kansas and beyond.
