INQ-277 | Nature Writing

Topic Description:

To explore, define (or attempt to) and practice the craft of nature writing, we must simultaneously engage the questions: What is nature? And in what ways are we, as humans, both apart from and a part of nature? In this course students will experience, read about, and write about urban nature, mediated nature, cultivated nature, and wilderness as they investigate several related questions: What is it that those who write about nature hope to accomplish: celebration, action, or something else? How might reading and writing about the natural world create, or re-create, our relationship to that world? And what challenges—and opportunities—does engaging the craft of this creative nonfiction genre pose (and offer) to the writer who takes it on? Since nature writing demands firsthand observation of the natural world, students will be asked to spend time in a variety of outdoor settings: in local parks, on forest trails, paddling rivers, visiting a farm. Students will be asked to participate in walks and moderate hikes ranging from 1 to 5 miles and a guided, beginner-level kayaking excursion.

Course Types Offered: Field Trip

Topic Approved: November 2018