Beyond the Environment: Writing from the Roots

“Nature writing” is its own genre in the literary world, but increasingly writers and readers are pushing past the boundaries of what has traditionally constituted writing about the “environment.” A growing number of diverse voices and perspectives are exploring what it means to encounter and to be in relationship with the living world as a complex and multifaceted web of life that has agency and animism—of which the human story is but one part.

This course seeks to expand our understanding of nature writing as both a genre and a practice. We will welcome several guest writers—Rebecca Giggs, Charles Foster, Lucy Jones, Lia Purpura, and Jamie Figueroa—to help us push the bounds of nature writing as a literary category and expand our own writing practice as we consider the interconnected web of ecology that holds, sustains, and profoundly intersects each of our lives.

The theme for this session is: Writing from the Roots. What are the places that have most profoundly shaped you—as a human animal and as a writer? What are your practices and techniques for weaving landscapes into your work? How can we better listen to the multifaceted, multilayered voices of the places we call home?

Photo by Jeremy Seifert.