FARMINGTON — The University of Maine at Farmington is set to present lyric essayist noam keim as the second reader of the spring semester schedule of its Visiting Writers series at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 13, in the landing in the university’s Olsen Student Center, 111 South St.

In “The Land is Holy,” keim’s lyrical essays explore diaspora, survival and inherited memory through the resilient flora and fauna of their lineage, according to a news release from April Mulherin, the university’s associate director of media relations. Their non-fiction writing weaves themes close to their heart: reverence to the land, healing, queerness, colonialism, plants and abolition. Their poetic collection and essays navigate the complexities of home, exile and kinship, urging readers to seek connection with the natural world as a source of healing and resistance. It won the 2022 Megaphone Prize and was awarded a 2023 Periplus fellowship.

Philadelphia native keim was an independent study fellow at POCOAPOCO in Oaxaca and an artist-in-residence at Space A in Kathmandu. Their work has been published in the Kenyon Review, the Massachusetts Review and ALOCASIA Foglifter.

“The Land is Holy” is available for pre-purchase at the University Store on the UMF campus and Devany, Doak and Garret Booksellers in Farmington.

The Visiting Writer Series is sponsored by the UMF Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program. The reading, free and open to the public, will be followed by a book signing.

For more information visit umf.maine.edu.

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