<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n \u201cWe are thrilled that TCU Press will be publishing this historic work,\u201d said Karla K. Morton. \u201cIn our travels to thirty-eight of the sixty National Parks so far\u2014and their visitor centers and bookstores\u2014we have found some beautiful poetry about individual parks, but not a single comprehensive poetry collection that includes and celebrates every single national park.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n In the spirit of previous defenders of the outdoors\u2014like Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Aldo Leopold, and John Graves\u2014Morton and Birkelbach hope to contribute to the exploration, cultural preservation, and protection of our country\u2019s precious national parks.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIn this digital age, there is no replacement for the grandeur of Mother Nature. Wonder cannot be imported or exported, but it can be captured with words; in our roles as Poets Laureate, we can think of no better treasure to explore and champion than the U.S. national parks,\u201d said Morton.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n For updates on Morton and Birkelbach\u2019s National Parks Tour, speaking schedule, and forthcoming book, visit www.texaspoetlaureate.com\/tour.html, follow along on their blog at www.wordsofpreservation.com, on Facebook, on Instagram, and subscribe to Karla\u2019s quarterly e-newsletter.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Texas Poets Laureate Karla K. Morton, Alan Birkelbach, announce book deal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9,8],"class_list":["post-1699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-lonestarliterarylife","tag-lonestarliterarycom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/sites\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/files\/article_body_images\/08%2C%20Texas%20poets%20laureate%20book%20deal%2C%20Glacier.jpg\")
Morton and Birkelbach launched their Words of Preservation National Parks Tour toward the end of 2016 with an NPR Wyoming interview and an inspirational visit to Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons National Park. They have visited thirty-eight National Parks so far on their quest to visit all sixty, with plans to visit the remaining parks in 2019. Along the way, they have documented their journey through poetry and photography and presented at U.S. national park venues and nearby universities, bookstores, and public libraries.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n