The Telluride Institute’s Talking Gourds Poetry Club presents Kyce Bello of Santa Fe on Tuesday Feb. 11th at 6 pm at the Telluride Arts HQ Gallery located at 135 West Pacific Ave., across the street from the Wilkinson Public Library.

Winner of the inaugural Interim 2018 Test Site Poetry Series Prize, Bello’s Refugia (Univ. of Nevada Press, 2019) is a bright and hopeful voice in the current conversation about climate change.

Bello was born in Virginia but came of age in the far reaches of northern New Mexico. She currently lives with her husband and daughters in Santa Fe.

In lieu of attending high school, Bello attended the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine, where she received a certificate in Clinical Herbalism. She completed training as a Registered Nurse before attending the University of New Mexico, where she received an interdisciplinary degree in creative writing and Southwest studies.

Kyce earned her MFA in poetry at The Institute of American Indian Arts in 2017. Her poems are informed by the idea that our imaginations and language are the first site of ecological restoration, and explore the contour between culture and landscape. They have appeared in Kenyon Review Online, Boston Review, About Place, Anomaly, The Raven Chronicles, Taos Journal of Poetry, Sonora Review and elsewhere. She writes the occasional blog: Old Recipe for a New World at kycebello.com.

The theme/prompt for those wanting to share poems during the Passing of the Gourd is “Family Tree.”

Poetry Club readings in Telluride start at 6 p.m. beginning with Club News & Other Business. Following that, the featured readers share work for 30 to 45 minutes. There’s a short break. And then we pass the Gourd, and everyone has the opportunity to share their own poem (on any topic) -- or a piece by a favorite author on the month’s theme.

More information here