On April 13, 2025, Milkweed Editions delighted in collaborating with The Obodo Collective, a Las Vegas-based urban farm, to break ground on their second annual Our Mothers’ Garden Book Festival. To join in the festivities, Milkweed Editions donated a bundle of books to distribute to the community.

Collaborating with The Obodo Collective to break ground on a successful festival, for Milkweed, means more than just extending this act of mutual flourishing—it is the chance to delight in a gift economy over tilled earth. Per their website, their namesake embodies their mission in its entirety: “Obodo comes from the Igbo…

On May 6th, Milkweed Editions hosted a concert and album release party for late poet Bill Holm’s Playing Haydn for the Angel of Death. The album—a musical rendition of the late author’s namesake poem—was composed by Martha Helen Schmidt, sung by operatic baritone Ryan Hugh Ross, and accompanied by pianist Dr. Daniel Rieppel. They were joined by Milkweed Editions founder Emilie Buchwald, and visiting poets Freya Manfred and Barton Sutter. Together, they conjured Open Book into a concert hall to demonstrate the mastery of poetics, the transformative power of art song, and how Bill Holm challenged…