Let this panel of poets and scientists introduce you to a unique landform stretching along the western edge of Iowa and reaching into South Dakota and Missouri: the Loess Hills, which rise up sharply from an otherwise nearly flat landscape, and act as a rare biodiversity life raft in a highly altered region. Through photos, video, poems, and stories, you’ll be transported there, connecting to this threatened landscape with a sense of wonder and possibility, understanding the indispensable role of these steep slopes in Midwest conservation.

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Kelly Madigan, a poet, essayist and conservation advocate, lives in the Loess Hills of western Iowa. She received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Distinguished Artist Award from the Nebraska Arts Council. In 2020, Kelly walked the length of Iowa’s Loess Hills to understand her landscape on foot, which led her to co-create, with other regional stakeholders, The LoHi Trek in 2021, now in its sixth year. The multi-day hike features educational pop-ups about conservation, history, and geology. Her books include The Edge of Known Things (SFASU Press) and Getting Sober (McGraw-Hill). (www.kmadigan.com)

Robert Bauer is a grazing specialist living in Viroqua, Wisconsin. He grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and studied environmental science at the University of Minnesota. He works professionally with farmers to develop grazing plans. He has lived most of his life near the Mississippi River, so his work and writing focus on the connections between people, land, and water. He has hiked The LoHi Treks during 2023 to 2026. In 2024, he participated in Kelly Madigan’s class “Writing the Loess Hills,” and since then has read poetry each year at The Loess Hills Prairie Seminar in Onawa, Iowa.

Marianne Murphy Zarzana, Professor Emerita of English, Southwest Minnesota State University, is a poet/writer/educator, and mormor (Swedish for grandmother). She lives in South Bend, Indiana, and travels with her husband, writer James A. Zarzana, to Sweden to visit their daughter’s family. Her poems have been published in literary magazines and anthologies, including Poetry of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems, Rocked by the Waters: Poems of Motherhood, and The Stafford Challenge Anthology 2025. She contributed to the AGU22 (American Geophysical Union) Community Poem, “Dear Sky, Dear Blue Planet.” She hiked the Loess Hills during The LoHi Trek 2026. (www.mariannezarzana.com)