Introduction to Nature and Environmental Writing Online Short Course
Course description
Course overview
This inspiring course looks at how writing can inspire us to think about the natural world and our relationship to it, which is especially pertinent in these times of climate change and disruption. We will discuss how these topics are written about by reading extracts from works by environmental writers from around the world, such as Rachel Carson, Barry Lopez, Annie Dillard, Terry Tempest Williams, Robert McFarlane, Kathleen Jamie, Helen Macdonald, Tim Dee, Lauret Savoy and Robin Wall Kimmerer.
The course will explore how writers have grappled with ecological issues, particularly in more recent times. Nature writing can also intersect with memoir, travel writing, activism, and the essay form in general. We will discuss these intersections and crossovers as part of our weekly conversations.
Students will be encouraged to explore their own personal or individual relationship to an environment near them and to question and delve into their place in the natural world. It is this relationship that they will be invited to write about. Students do not need any specialist knowledge. The focus will be on storytelling and exploring our place in the natural world.
During the course, students will participate in a series of practical exercises and discussions about point of view, characterisation, setting the scene and the ethics of writing nonfiction, which will help them develop their voice and hone techniques to support their writing process. Writing will be workshopped each week and feedback offered. Students will be expected to work a minimum of 3.5 hours (roughly 30 minutes per day) outside of class time to complete the weekly assigned writing exercises.
Who this course is for
The course is suitable for anyone who has a desire to write about nature, the environment and their relationship to it. There are no formal requirements except a good standard of literacy, a curiosity about nature writing, and a love of reading and sharing work.
Key information
Topics covered
- Creative writing skills: fundamental techniques and concepts relevant to nature writing
- Discussion of published examples (provided) of environmental literature, nature writing and creative non-fiction
- Discussion of how to incorporate Nature into one's life and vice versa
- Where might we find stories in nature?
- Workshopping and critical discussion of pieces of writing (provided)
- Potential outlets for publishing environmental and nature writing
- How to position yourself with respect to nature writing and the environment in general
Learning outcomes
- Understanding of nature writing as a genre and one well-honed piece of writing
- Good knowledge of some of the major voices in nature and environmental writing
- Be able to find stories related to nature writing
- Understand how environmental writing has changed, especially in this era of climate disruption
- Have a better understanding of how to fit writing into daily lives
- Have a better understanding of the technical aspects of writing
- Have a sense of what online and print outlets might be open to submissions of environmental and nature writing
- Have a better understanding of writing voice
- Have a sense of how and where you might want to take your writing further
- Receive a digital badge and certificate of attendance
Materials
- Please bring a natural object to class - make a note of where you found the object or how it came to you e.g. shell from a specific beach, stone from a hike, leaf etc.
- Notebook and pen/pencil
Please see our Guide to taking online short courses.
Tutor
Joanna Pocock
Joanna Pocock is the 2018 winner of the Fitzcarraldo Editions Essay Prize for 'Surrender', her book-length memoir and meditation on the American West, its land and its people. 'Surrender' has been compared to the writings of Rebecca Solnit, Lauren Elkin, Garnette Cadogan and Iain Sinclair and described as a 'necessary read for our times'. The book has been published in the UK, US and Canada, and been translated into French and Spanish. Joanna is an Arts Foundation Fellow, a 2021 winner of the Arts Foundation Prize in Environmental Writing and has been recently shortlisted for the Nature Chronicles Prize in Nature Writing. Her writing and photo essays have been published in a variety of outlets in the UK and US, most notably The Los Angeles Times, The Nation, Orion, The New Statesman, The Spectator, The Times Literary Supplement, Granta, Dazed & Confused and Tank Magazine. She has been teaching creative writing, both fiction and non-fiction, for two decades and brings a wealth of writing, editing and publishing experience to her classes. When she isn't writing and teaching, Joanna works as an editor at the Dark Mountain Project and for Verso Books. Her next book, 'Greyhound', is being published by Fitzcarraldo Editions (UK) and Soft Skull (US) in Summer 2025.
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