The University of Oregon Center for Environmental Futures is pleased to announce that we are now accepting applications for the Understories Writers’ Workshop in the Environmental Humanities, a program that began in 2019. The purpose of the workshop is to encourage those in the Environmental Humanities to present their scholarly work using the techniques of literary nonfiction to engage broader public audiences. The workshop will entail daily time devoted to solo writing, as well as daily 2-hour group workshops and field activities.
The workshop will take place in person July 8–13, 2024 (arrival on July 7, departure on July 14) on a historic farm located on the remote southwest coastline of Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, which is a short ferry trip from Victoria or Vancouver, BC. The 230-acre property is situated on the ancestral homelands of the Quw’utsun and W̱SÁNEĆ people, and includes multiple hiking trails, old growth forest, a large organic garden, and 1 mile of undeveloped coastline. Accommodations include separate sleeping rooms for each participant, and meals will include vegetarian and vegan options, if desired.
The workshop is limited to 8 participants, with a majority from the University of Oregon and a small number from beyond the UO community. Eligibility is restricted to faculty, graduate students, and independent scholars in the Environmental Humanities and allied fields (for example ecological approaches to literature, gender, religion, politics, philosophy, the arts, and/or race; animal studies; indigenous studies; environmental justice, ethics and sustainability; environmental history, historical/cultural geography, anthropology, or sociology). Both aspiring and accomplished non-fiction writers who want to learn a more literary narrative style to engage a wider public audience are encouraged to apply.
The workshop, lodging, meals, and transportation (via shared vehicle) are free of cost to UO faculty and graduate students. Those selected from outside the UO community will receive a stipend of up to $500 to offset travel costs to Salt Spring Island, with no charge for the workshop, lodging, and meals.
Applicants should send a 1-page letter that explains why you would benefit from this workshop and briefly describes the writing project on which you intend to work, along with a CV and writing sample to Alayne Switzer, alayne@uoregon.edu, by May 15, 2024. Successful applicants will be notified by May 30.
SYLLABUS
UNDERSTORIES WRITERS’ WORKSHOP IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL HUMANITIES CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL FUTURES, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
Workshop leader – Dr. Briony Penn
JULY 7-13, 2024 // SALTSPRING ISLAND, BC
THE HOPES FOR THE WEEK
Writing can flow and engage when the natural world is guiding the process. Energy and inspiration come from the connections and relationships that bind people emotionally and ecologically to a place, the other plants and animals with whom they cohabit, and the communities that came before them. Within this rich spatial and temporal writing framework, there are opportunities to observe, write and draw (yes draw!) details, connections, synchronicities, metaphors, humour, events, your ideas and generally let your pen wander freely.
In the six afternoons we have together on this beautiful land, I’d like to share a few creative writing practices grounded in place and time that have proved useful for me. Previous workshop leader, Jenny Price, describes the environmental humanities as “urgent arguments” so we’ll ponder the role of creative non-fiction in an ecologically-impoverished time. How do we mobilize and energize an audience to urgent arguments for whom connections to the natural world are all but severed? How do we mobilize and energize ourselves?
THE RYTHYM OF THE DAY
The day is your own to read, write, research, wander, rest, ponder. I am available for one-on-one conversations between 1:00 and 3:00 PM. At 3:00, we will all go on a walk together for about an hour and a half through a different ecosystem. This will be a chance to share local knowledge of place, ask questions and learn from each other. It will be a time to get your body, heart and mind working. The remaining time will be for you to apply what you’ve observed through a different writing exercise in that place. I’ll slowly rotate around the group to support you and any questions, if needed. In the evenings over dinner, we’ll also have time to share our writings and ideas. On Friday night I will stay overnight, and we can star gaze, look for bioluminescence, nighthawks and bats and share some of our writings.
THE WORK
The work won’t be onerous—getting to know the area, seeing the details, drawing inspiration from beauty and deep observation. The skills for strong writing take time so it is less crucial that we do a ton of writing in our 5 days together than we learn the practice of writing in place.
**PLEASE PREPARE IN ADVANCE OF ARRIVAL
- Read the three short pieces that I’ve included
- Buy a drawing journal with high quality paper, a fine line black pen, pencil and eraser,
- Bring sturdy shoes for walking in uneven terrain, option are binoculars and a hand lens but highly recommended.
- Bring some paragraphs of writing that you love and, if you want, your own project-in-progress—many of the exercises will be amenable to using your own work. If you’d rather leave it at home to get some rest, then that’s totally fine too.
THE SCHEDULE
SUNDAY ARRIVAL Settle in, orientation & introductions.
MONDAY SHORELINE Introduction to the sea at low tide, journalling and the use of micromapping.
TUESDAY WETLANDS Visit to Xwaaqwuum (Burgoyne Provincial Park) and the Stqeeye’ Learning Society wetland restoration projects. No writing activity.
WEDNESDAY CREEK Use of sit spots to focus thoughts and develop metaphors for concepts you’re grappling with.
THURSDAY OLD GROWTH FOREST An exercise in scale looking at micro and macro communities, e.g., the forest overstory, understory and microstory—pulling it all together in time, place and scale.
FRIDAY ARBUTUS KNOLLS Mapping natural history events you observe evidence of or witness on the landscape to provide ideas and story arcs, e.g., prey/predator event, symbiosis, parasitism, glaciation, succession, seasonality.
SATURDAY GARRY OAK SAVANNAH A deep dive into a species of this grassland ecosystem that extends all the way down the coast. Get to know it better, observing, writing about it then tracing the connections back to an element of your life and work. Exploring synchronicity as a mechanism to connect people to place and nature.
DEVICES — Our time together will be phone-and-laptop-free.
INDIVIDUAL MEETS — are by request. I’m happy to meet up individually with anyone who would like to in the afternoons.
RECIPROCITY AND RESPECT—to borrow from Karen Piper, who led the first Understories workshop—please be honest but also kind to one another, open to critique, and willing to separate who you are from what you write.
CONFIDENTIALITY Please don’t share the writing we show to one another with anyone else.
HOW TO REACH ME penn@saltspring.com. I much prefer email, but feel free to contact me before or during the workshop week with any questions, comments, suggestions.
READINGS
Martin, Nastassja (2023) “Who must our words serve?” Orion Magazine, Spring pp. 17-27.
Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt (2015) “Arts of noticing,” The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins. Princeton University Press, pp.13-25.
Poth, Janet ed. Saltwater People as told by Dave Elliott Sr. https://wsanec.com///wp-content/uploads/2019/03/saltwater-people-1983-delliot-sr-compressed.pdf
The workshop will be led by multi-generation Salt Spring Islander Briony Penn, who is an adjunct professor at the University of Victoria School of Environmental Studies and an award-winning writer of creative non-fiction books, environmental journalism, and environmental guides and educational handbooks for teachers in British Columbia.
Penn’s books include Following the Good River (Rocky Mountain Books, 2020), A Year on the Wild Side: A West Coast Naturalists Almanac (Touchwood Editions, 2019), and The Real Thing: The Natural History of Ian McTaggart Cowan (Rocky Mountain Books, 2015). She has also authored over five hundred articles on environmental issues and natural history in newspapers, magazines, government publications, on-line news sources and peer-reviewed journals. Trained as a geographer, she has conducted workshops on writing, journaling, natural history, and mapping, sometimes all four.
For more information, see: https://www.brionypenn.com