photo by: Courtesy of The Commons

Margaret Renkl

Best-selling author Margaret Renkl will present the Kenneth A. Spencer Lecture for the University of Kansas on Nov. 3 and will participate in a local prairie walk.

The lecture, sponsored by The Commons, will take place at 7 p.m. at Liberty Hall. Free tickets are now available for the event, which will be followed by a book-signing.

The walk, earlier on Nov. 3, will offer attendees an opportunity to visit a native prairie with Renkl. From 2:30 to 4 p.m., Renkl and local land stewards will visit the 16-acre Akin Prairie in southeastern Douglas County. The event is an opportunity to learn about the tract of land and its role in prairie ecosystems. The event will close with a poetry reading by Megan Kaminski, a poet and KU professor of environmental studies who is completing work around the site through a grant from the Outdoors Unscripted Festival.

Those interested in riding a bus from the Lawrence campus to the event can register at eventbrite.com and meet at 2 p.m. at the bus stop in front of Haworth Hall.

Based in Nashville, Renkl, a New York Times columnist, centers themes of grief, love, loss and the American South in her work within the context of the natural world.

She is the author of “Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss,” “Graceland, at Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache From the American South” and “The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year,” which won the 2024 Southern Book Prize and is a New York Times best seller. Her latest book, “Leaf, Cloud, Crow: A Weekly Backyard Journal,” is a companion to “The Comfort of Crows” that offers advice for studying the natural world.

The Kenneth A. Spencer Lecture, hosted by The Commons, is an endowed lecture dedicated to bringing leading thinkers to address the KU and regional communities. Featured speakers have included Rebecca Solnit, Eve Ewing, Jose Antonio Vargas, Jonny Sun and Robin Wall Kimmerer.