Writing Workshop: Environment and the Body

“We are the Earth being conscious of itself.” –Henryk Skolimowski, Eco-Philosophy: Designing New Tactics for Living (1981)
Much literature in English reinforces colonial conceptions of humans as separate from the natural world, using the environment only as symbolic backdrop. But the environments we inhabit also inhabit us. How do our environments—and the stories we tell about them—shape us and our writing? How do we write this relationship? In this workshop, we draw on the work of Toni Morrison, Joshua Whitehead, and Chen Ran to explore approaches to writing about land and ourselves/characters in relationship with that land. The workshop includes short presentations, writing exercises/prompts and discussion. Open to both poets and prose writers. Please bring a lunch.