Nature writing is not dead. Nature writing is a slow dance with love.
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Coming
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2014! 
Creating Stories that Make a Difference:
Advice & Guidance for Interpretive Writing and Writers
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Scientists, artist, and 3-year-olds are united in their embrace of reality and possibility.
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Stay Curious
brief observations on nature, writing, and workshops
There's a fox den in the far corner of my suburban backyard.
Before I moved to Colorado, I'd never seen a fox outside book illustrations. What I knew of foxes came from small books borrowed from my cousins, stories filled with the crafty cleverness of Br'er Rabbit and Br'er Fox. I imagined that the tangled masses of blackberry bushes growing wild along the edges of my Ohio forests and farm fields were briar patches. Rabbits certainly tucked in and out of them unscathed, unlike my clumsy self, emerging snagged and scratched whenever I tried to follow one.
The den hasn't always been there, of course. I attribute the acceptability of it as fox habitat to 30 years of neglect. The previous owners planted some nice trees and a bit of landscaping. The extension cord for my electric mower was too short to reach the back corner, and the mower was too underpowered to do much good anyway, so I just let nature take its course.
I saw my first fox a couple of years before the City changed the land use codes to allow "up to six chicken hens per household." I've never actually seen a fox catch any of my neighbor's chickens, though I did see stories in last winter's snow that likely explain the ominous quiet of their coop. And last summer, an escaped hen--presumed to have been long-eaten after someone forgot to close up the coop one night--appeared in my yard, then fled to the safety of a yucca plant as my neighbor attempted to capture the defiant bird. Yucca, I have learned, is every bit as effective as a blackberry briar patch.
But there is more to this than the simple pleasure of watching something as wondrous and unexpected as a fox strolling across my lawn.
 I watch the fox watching something else, something I can't quite see from my upstairs window, and I think, "To be a great writer, I have to be a great observer. I have to stay alert, be entirely focused on my goal--and at the same time, be aware of everything that surrounds me."
The fox settles on the snow, not actively hunting, but ready to  catch any opportunities that drift by. I recognize in him that tingling sensation of stretching my senses out, open and curious about everything, as if all the hairs on my arm were whiskers, as if all my nerve endings, from my fingertips to the tip of my nose, were quill tips quivering in anticipation of a perfect tendril of ink.
 Just before he breaks his pose, I remember that if I sit too long, my backside will freeze; stories have to keep moving. I remember that no amount of staring at the briar patch will produce a rabbit.
And I think about "nature writing," and what we believe qualifies as "nature writing," and whether or not such definitions are important.
Are the tales of Uncle Remus nature writing? Are coyote and raven stories? Is nature writing the purview only of such greats as Thoreau and Aldo Leopold, Wendell Barry and Rachel Carson? Does it have to be nonfiction? Essays only? Contemplative? Politically charged? Does poetry count? Is it even a genre? Aren't we supposed to know what it is without asking? Is it, as friend and colleague Dan DiVittorio asked me in a recent email, "[O]ne of those obvious things we are all supposed to know. Like "food writing" is about food (theoretically), so nature writing must be about nature."
It's true that there's an assumed meaning--nature writing is about nature, the same way food writing is about food and sports writing is about sports--but like those genres, nature writing tends to grow beyond its boundaries, kind of like kudzu.
That said, I'm not convinced that nature writing is an isolated genre, nor that it ever has been. I know for certain that it is not restricted to prose, that it encompasses fiction and creative nonfiction, that people of all cultures and races have written it. I know that last year, at least one writer claimed that nature writing was dead, the victim of best-selling personal memoirs that focus on people and their problems instead of on nature, and that I will never understand how anyone can differentiate between "nature" and "people and their problems" because we're all part of the same planet. It's always seemed like a false dichotomy to me.
So in that way, nature writing is like food writing. There are memoirs and poems and novels that are food writing (My Life In France by Julia Child, Osso Bucco by Billy Collins, Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel); there are essays and articles and political rants and--
Well, you get the idea.
If nature writing (in whatever form) is something you're interested in, I hope you'll join me January 26, 2014 in Borrego Springs, California for the first Anza Borrego Foundation nature writing workshop. I've included details below, along with an overview of the agenda.
And here, for fun and listed in no particular order, are some books I'm reading now that qualify--for me, anyway--as nature writing.
The Echo Maker by Richard Powers
Sick of Nature by David Gessner
A Match to the Heart by Gretel Ehrlich
Walking Nature Home by Susan J. Tweit
What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison by Camille Dungy
The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2013 edited by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Stay curious, and keep writing--
Judy
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(with optional group gathering Friday morning,
Jan. 31, before check-out)
Palm Canyon Resort
Borrego Springs, CA
(about 2 hours east of San Diego)
Give your writing a boost in 2014! Join the Anza Borrego Foundation (ABF) and Palm Canyon Resort for a 4-1/2 day writing workshop led by Judy Fort Brenneman. Over the course of the workshop, you'll go on 2 field trips, have daily workshop sessions with different topics of focus, an optional one-on-one session with Judy, and time to write, reflect, and explore. Unlike conferences where you only talk about writing, at the ABF nature writing workshop,
you'll write. - Whether you write poetry or prose, nonfiction or fiction
- Whether you're sure you're a "nature writer" or not sure what "nature writing" really is
- Whether you're a beginner or a long-time story-maker
You'll venture deeper into your writing, making more progress than you thought possible in such a short time.
REGISTER HEREAgenda
Sunday: Arrive noon-2pm. Introductions to the class and warm-up writing, followed by supper on your own. After supper, reading and question session with guest author Lyanda Lynn Haupt, author of The Urban Bestiary: Encountering the Everyday Wild.
Monday: 9:00 a.m. start time. Morning: warm-up writing, discussion, and daily workshop. Lunch on your own. Afternoon: field trip to Mine Wash Village Site. Dinner on your own. Evening: writing and retreat time.
Tuesday: 9:00 a.m. start time. Morning: warm-up writing, discussion, and daily workshop. Lunch on your own. Afternoon: writing and retreat time, as well as one-on-one session meetings. Dinner on your own. Evening: writing and retreat time, with prompts.
Wednesday: 9:00 a.m. start time. Morning: warm-up writing, discussion, and daily workshop. Lunch on your own. Afternoon: writing and retreat time, as well as one-on-one session meetings. Dinner on your own, followed by evening field trip to Font's Point.
Thursday: 9:00 a.m. start time. Morning: warm-up writing, discussion, and daily workshop. Lunch on your own. Afternoon: writing and retreat time, as well as one-on-one session meetings. Group dinner sponsored by ABF, followed by evening open mic night.
Friday: Morning: optional group gathering. Check out and go home.
REGISTER HEREAccommodations
For workshop attendees, Palm Canyon Resort is offering the preferred room rates of $99 per King Standard room (per night, plus tax) and $125 per Queen Standard room (per night, plus tax), $125 per King Balcony room (per night, plus tax), and $143 per Queen Balcony room (per night, plus tax). Call 760/767-5341 to make your reservation.
Please refer to the "Anza Borrego Foundation rate" when booking and be sure to mention the Nature Writing Workshop.
REGISTER HERENEED MORE INFO?
Email Judy or call 970/416-6353.  | |
Palm Canyon Resort, Borrego Springs, CA
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About the Instructor: Judy Fort Brenneman is an award-winning author, essayist, and playwright as well as a popular writing workshop leader and writing coach. Through her company, Greenfire Creative, LLC, she helps people, agencies, and organizations tell their stories. To learn more, visit our website or contact Judy
by email: judyb@greenfire-creative.comor by phone: 970/416-6353
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