“The Language of Trees:” A Conversation & Workshop with Artist Katie Holten
Artist and activist Katie Holten will present a public conversation and workshop on Maui in conjunction with the re-release of her book The Language of Trees: How Trees Make Our World, Change Our Minds, and Rewild Our Lives.
Thursday, October 29, 5:30 PM: A Conversation at Hui No’eau Visual Arts Center (Maui, HI)
Katie Holten will join Nina Peláez, The Merwin Conservancy’s Associate Director, for a conversation about the environmental imagination and our relationship to literature, landscape, and the more-than-human world. The conversation will draw on themes from Katie’s book, as well as her Tree Alphabet project.
The Language of Trees, re-released for a special second edition in September 2026, considers our relationship with literature and landscape, resulting in an astonishing fusion of storytelling and art and a deeply beautiful celebration of trees through the ages. In it, readers can experience her tree alphabet which illuminates a new way of connecting with the variety of essays included within.
A reception with light refreshments and a book signing, with books available for purchase, will follow the talk.
Space is limited and early registration is recommended. Tickets are $25 for general admission & $10 for students. Supporters who make a gift of $100 or more receive priority seating, a signed copy of The Language of Trees, and recognition on our
Become a Green Room Supporter
Your support at any level helps make The Green Room happen. Supporters at the $100 level and above receive early access to tickets with priority seating, receive a signed copy of The Language of Trees, and are acknowledged on our website. Space is limited.
Saturday, October 31, 1 PM: A Creative Workshop at The Merwin Conservancy (Maui, HI)
Can we read trees?
Can we think like a forest?
What is the language we need to live right now?
How can we learn to be better lovers of the world?
Can a line drawing become more than a simple sketch of leaves, flowers, or a tree?
Can a drawing become a story, a record, or a poem?
Spend an afternoon immersed in these questions with artist Katie Holten while surrounded by W.S. Merwin’s palm forest and library. In this intimate, creative workshop, participants will explore what it might be like to think like a forest while experimenting with new ways of seeing, drawing, and thinking with the more-than-human world. This program will take place on site at The Merwin Conservancy. Light refreshments will be served.
Space is limited to 10 participants. Tickets are $125 each and include a signed limited-edition copy of The Language of Trees.
About Katie Holten
Katie Holten is an artist and activist. In 2003, she represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale. She has had solo exhibitions at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Nevada Museum of Art, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, and Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane. Her work investigates the entangled relationships between humans and the natural world. She has created Tree Alphabets, a Forest Alphabet, and a Wildflower Alphabet to share the joy she finds in her love of the more-than-human world. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Artforum, and The Guardian. She is a visiting lecturer at the New School of the Anthropocene. If she could be a tree, she would be an Oak.
About The Language of Trees
Inspired by forests, trees, leaves, roots, and seeds, The Language of Trees: How Trees Make Our World, Change Our Minds, and Rewild Our Lives returns in a stunning, updated package, welcoming readers to discover an unexpected and imaginative language inspired by the beauty of the natural world.
In this gorgeously illustrated and deeply thoughtful collection, Katie Holten gifts readers her tree alphabet and uses it to masterfully translate and illuminate beloved lost and new, original writing in praise of the natural world. With an introduction from Ross Gay, and featuring writings from over fifty contributors including Ursula K. Le Guin, Ada Limón, Robert Macfarlane, Zadie Smith, Radiohead, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, James Gleick, Elizabeth Kolbert, Plato, and Robin Wall Kimmerer, Holten illustrates each selection with an abiding love and reverence for the magic of trees. She guides readers on a journey from creation myths and cave paintings to the death of a 3,500-year-old cypress tree, from Tree Clocks in Mongolia and forest fragments in the Amazon to the language of fossil poetry, unearthing a new way to see the natural beauty all around us and an urgent reminder of what could happen if we allow it to slip away.
The Language of Trees considers our relationship with literature and landscape, resulting in an astonishing fusion of storytelling and art and a deeply beautiful celebration of trees through the ages.
This programming is made possible through generous support from the Laila Twigg-Smith Art Fund, and our Green Room Supporters.
