VCUarts Qatar Poet and Scholar Spotlights the Arabian Desert in New Book

The new book, titled Reverent Flora: The Arabian Desert’s Botanical Bounty, features a collection of poetry that catalogues the Arabian Desert’s critically endangered and disappearing flora while promoting responsible caretaking of the earth. Combining scientific analysis with poetic flair, the book details the traces of religion, literature, and culture in the region’s climate and geography, and explores the twenty-two most mentioned plants in the Quran.

“Living for two decades at the edge of the Arabian Desert, I became interested in local and global conservation issues, as well as in the environmental ethic of the Qur’an,” Woodcock said, commenting on the inspiration behind the work, which is also driven by broader concerns about the future of other regions struggling under different natural and climatic conditions.

 “Reverent Flora inspires a greater appreciation of and commitment to protecting not only the unique environment of the Arabian Peninsula, but also other equally endangered ecosystems around the world.”

Woodcock, who teaches English courses as part of the Liberal Arts & Sciences program at VCUarts Qatar, has carved a unique and influential career over the years exploring the intersections between ecology, humanity, and spirituality. Her PhD degree in Creative Writing, which she received from Lancaster University, initiated this journey with an investigation of the role of poetry in the search for an environmental ethic. 

Since then, she has led several related projects exploring themes such as the relationship between environmental rights and human rights, and published seven full-length poetry collections, including Heaven Underfoot, winner of the 2022 Codhill Press Pauline Uchmanowicz Poetry Award, and Swaying on the Elephant’s Shoulders, which won the 2011 Vernice Quebodeaux International Women’s Poetry Prize.

In anticipation of the opening of Qatar’s UNESCO-sponsored Qur’anic Botanic Garden, Woodcock also began writing poems that highlight the ecology and flora of the region as it withstands and navigates a major environmental calamity. The Qur’anic Botanic Garden aims to maintain, for scientific and educational purposes, a living collection of Qatar’s 270- plus indigenous plants and to showcase the 52 mentioned more than once in the Qur’an.