W&L’s Lesley Wheeler Publishes New Book The English professor’s poetry collection explores natural and human transformation.

By Lily Caldwell
February 21, 2025

Lesley Wheeler, Henry S. Fox Professor of English at Washington and Lee University, has published a new book, “Mycocosmic,” that will be published March 4.

Published by Tupelo Press and runner-up for the Dorset Prize, the book focuses on the idea of fungi and bacteria and their roles in sustaining life on Earth. The poems emphasize topics of grief while calling for a transformation of sense of self. And the themes are channeled through various forms including free verse, litany, sonnets, the bref double, the golden shovel and the villanelle.

The book features an underpoem, a book-length essay in verse that runs along the bottom of each page and responds to the poems above it, a reference to the fungi beneath us that nourish and metabolize new life.

“It’s a thrill to publish my sixth poetry collection with Tupelo Press, a publisher whose poetry list I’ve admired for so long,” said Wheeler. “‘Mycocosmic’ was inspired partly by my readings about fungi, mycelium and what’s often called the ‘wood wide web.’ We could all do better at recognizing how profoundly connected we are, sometimes in subterranean ways. I also wrote many of these poems while grieving, thinking about how without fungi and bacteria, death would overwhelm the world. Fungi turn death into nourishment for new life — a beautiful idea I took to heart.”

Wheeler will hold a local book launch from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 4, at Downtown Books. The event will feature brief readings from Wheeler and three additional W&L poets: Emmett Buckley, visiting assistant professor of English, Leah Naomi Green, visiting assistant professor of English, and Seth Michelson, associate professor of Spanish. In the coming months, Wheeler will perform book readings in New York City, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, Charlottesville, Virginia, at the Virginia Festival of the Book and other locations.

Wheeler has been a member of the W&L faculty since 1994, teaching poetry from the 19th through the 21st centuries and creative writing. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from Rutgers University and a Ph.D. from Princeton University. Wheeler also serves as poetry editor of Shenandoah.

If you know a W&L faculty member who has done great, accolade-worthy things, tell us about them! Nominate them for an accolade.