This is an in-person workshop that takes place at Inprint House

You Can’t Save What You Don’t Love: Ecological Personal Essay Writing as an Act of Hope

“People protect what they love, they love what they understand, and they understand what they are taught.” – Jacques Cousteau.

So many of us, living in cities, are largely cut off from our roots, with limited access to nature. We will approach the craft of the personal essay by recalling our connection to and finding our own small ways back to nature. Such reflection can also be a powerful way back to hope and meaning, showing us new pathways to understanding the self, and ourselves in our environment, through the personal essay form.

In this workshop, we will find inspiration in literature that explores attention to the natural world and our relation to it. Then, through in-class exercises, we will craft personal essays of our own. An ecological lens will serve as an inroad into our essays, and each writer will take their essays where they most naturally lead. In the latter weeks of the workshop, we will share our emerging pieces with the group for constructive and encouraging help.