Creative Nonfiction: Writing Ourselves, Writing the World

3 units

In this course, we will explore memoirs, essay collections, and individual articles in which the writers have merged their observations and research of the natural world with their own personal experiences or philosophical inquiries. We will consider biologist David George Haskell's The Forest Unseen alongside essay collections by nonfiction writer Amy Leach (Things that Are), fiction writer Michael Martone (The Flatness and Other Landscapes), and poet Mary Oliver (Long Life), as well as excerpts from books by Eula Biss, Bill Holm, Barbara Hurd, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Lawrence Weschler. From these writers, we will learn how one might offer a view of the self through the lens of environment, place, biography, history, and reflection. Each student will also work on a manuscript of similar variety from idea to finished product.