Writer Greg Wrenn turned to coral reefs and a psychedelic tea called ayahuasca in search of healing from complex PTSD. Mothership: A Memoir of Wonder and Crisis is his deeply researched account of that journey and the subject of his free presentation at West Chester University on Wednesday, Oct. 16. This event begins at 3:30 PM in Philips Autograph Library and is free and open to all. Books will be available for sale.

Weaving together memoir and cutting-edge science, Mothership is not just a queer coming-of-age story. From the tide pools in Florida where Wrenn grew up to Indonesia’s Raja Ampat archipelago and the Amazon rainforest, the book chronicles his search for wholeness when talk therapy and pharmaceuticals did little to help. Along the way, as his ecological conscience wakes up, he takes readers underwater to the last pristine coral reefs on Earth.

An associate English Professor, Wrenn teaches environmental literature and creative writing at James Madison University, where he weaves climate change science into literary studies. He also teaches in the low-residency MFA program at Bennington Writing Seminars and in the memoir certificate program at Stanford Continuing Studies. He was educated at Harvard, Stanford, and Washington University in St. Louis. He has explored coral reefs around the world for more than 25 years and is a PADI Advanced Open Water Diver, as well as a trained yoga teacher. He maintains a research site in Indonesia and lives in the mountains of Virginia with his husband and their growing “family” of trees.

A former Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer at Stanford University, Wrenn is the Author of Centaur (University of Wisconsin Press, 2013), and winner of the Brittingham Prize in Poetry from National Book Award-winning poet Terrance Hayes. His work has appeared in The New Republic, Al Jazeera, New England Review, The Iowa Review, and elsewhere. He has received awards and fellowships from the James Merrill House, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the Poetry Society of America.

Wrenn’s visit to WCU is co-sponsored by the Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology, the Office of Sustainability, the Anthropology Club, the Graduate Certificate Publishing Program and the WCU Center for Book History. For more information, contact Dr. Michael Di Giovine, WCU Professor of Anthropology and Sociology: mdigiovine@wcupa.edu or 610-436-2247.

The True Nature of the Climate Crisis

Zach Brown, Co-Executive Director of the Alaska-based Tidelines Institute, will talk about “The True Nature of the Climate Crisis” on Wednesday, Oct. 16, at 5:00 PM in Merion Science Center Room 113. His free presentation is designed to inspire and motivate the audience to become more involved in the climate movement.

A Climate Scientist, Educator, and Activist, Brown studied Chemistry and Biology in college and earned his Ph.D. from Stanford University, researching how changing sea ice affects the marine biological communities of the polar regions, especially the phytoplankton that form the first link of the food chain. During his time at Stanford, he was able to join multiple research expeditions to both poles.

The mission of Tidelines Institute is to educate a diverse generation of citizens, stewards, and leaders through immersive courses in the communities and wildlands of S’íx’ Tlein (Icy Strait) and Sít’ Eeti Gheeyí (Glacier Bay) in southeast Alaska. The institute was established as two separate nonprofits: the Arete Project and Inian Islands Institute. Both founded in 2013, the two organizations independently ran experiential programs in civic and environmental leadership for several years before formally merging in 2021.

Visit the Office of Sustainability for additional sustainability events.

Learn more at WCU. Enrolling more than 17,000 students, West Chester University is the largest institution in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. Founded in 1871, the University is a comprehensive public institution, offering a diverse range of more than 200 undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral programs in more than 50 fields of study.