Morris took every opportunity to go out in the woods absorbing great botanical detail and spent his studio time creating allegories based on the changing forest ecology for a new book of poetry titled Ecotone, which was published by Antenna/Press Street Press in 2017. He hosted a poetry workshop for students from Algiers Technical Academy, using a small unidentified animal skeleton to appeal to the young poets’ sense of intrigue.

A native of Mississippi, Benjamin Morris is the author of Coronary (Fitzgerald Letterpress, 2011),Hattiesburg, Mississippi: A History of the Hub City(Arcadia/ History Press, 2014), and Ecotone(Antenna/Press Street Press, 2017). His work has received fellowships from the Mississippi Arts Commission, Tulane University, and A Studio in the Woods. Formerly a researcher with the University of Cambridge and the Open University (UK), he is presently a member of the Mississippi Artist Roster.

“In my time there, I came to think of A Studio in the Woods as a beacon. In the physical sense, certainly, as a house full of light, guiding one home from the darkness of the forest, but moreso in the symbolic sense: as a place of rest and refuge, where the weary feel restored and wanderers find anew their path. Each day I asked myself again: could it really be true?” – Benjamin Morris