Plant-Human Quarterly – 5th Anniversary Celebration
Plant-Human Quarterly celebrates its fifth anniversary with an evening of eco-poetry readings, projected artwork and the launch of a new zine featuring poems from previous contributors and artwork in print for the first time.
PHQ is an online literary magazine devoted to exploring the many ways writers express their relationship to the botanical world. Published on the solstices and equinoxes, the magazine pairs poems and essays with botanical imagery, bringing together verbal and visual forms.
The magazine is edited by poet Neil Shepard and produced in collaboration with OTHERWISE Projects in Amsterdam. Over the past five years PHQ has featured work by leading voices in environmental writing including Ellen Bass, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Nickole Brown, Nalini Nadkarni, Alison Hawthorne Deming, Jody Gladding, Jane Hirshfield and Forrest Gander, among many others.
For each published work, visual artist Candela Murillo creates an accompanying image using layered botanical materials, digital collage and paint. These works will be projected during the evening’s readings.
Presentations by Neil Shepard, Anna Riley Shepard, Candela Murillo, Luke Worthy & guests.
Neil Shepard’s most recent collections include The Book of Failures (2024, Madville Publishing), How It Is: Selected Poems (2018, Salmon Poetry), and an edited anthology, Vermont Poets & Their Craft (2019, Green Writers Press). His poems appear online at Poetry Daily, Verse Daily and Poem-a-Day, as well as in several hundred literary magazines. He founded and edited for a quarter century the Green Mountains Review and currently edits the online magazine Plant-Human Quarterly. These days, he splits his time between Vermont and NYC, where he teaches at Poets House.
Anna Riley-Shepard, she/they (NL/USA) is a Vermont-born interdisciplinary performer, maker, curator, neuroscientist, and queer ecologist based in Amsterdam. She holds degrees in cognitive neuroscience & dance from Harvard University, a certificate in sustainable development from Oxford, and completed professional dance training at Compagnia Zappalà Danza (IT). As a performer, she has the pleasure of performing with Tanzhaus Basel, Ogmia Dance Company, Cie Joachim Schloemer, Mayke van Veldhuizen, TerazNow Dance Theatre, Iris Woutera Co., and more. She co-directs the queer ecology arts group Otherwise Projects and works with the river health organization Pulsaqua.
Candela Murillo is a performer and visual artist from the South of Spain. She is currently working as a performer with the companies Panama Pictures and DadoDans. She also works as the artistic director of Plant Human Quarterly and directs the Danzahra International Dance Festival, based in Cádiz, Spain. She was part of Nieuwe Vide, an artist hub based in Haarlem, creating her own work, merlín movement and painting. She trained at the Seville Conservatory and later completed a master’s degree at the NSCD, with an internship at Phoenix Dance Theatre. She is currently based in the Netherlands, where she has developed her career participating in various freelance projects.
Luke Worthy is a queer poet and fiction writer from Sheffield living in Amsterdam. He was shortlisted for the Northern Writers’ Debut Award for Poetry 2025 and was runner-up in the International New Poet’s Prize 2023. His writing has been published by The Poetry Society, Magma, BUTT magazine, fourteenpoems, Sleepy Press and Poetry Wales, amongst others. He has had work commissioned by the British Library and Eye Filmmuseum Amsterdam in 2025. He is managing editor at Plant-Human Quarterly and works for Hive Young Writers’ Network, supporting and empowering young people across the North of England reach their writing potential.
