April 24-26, 2020 – Trying to Be There: Writing In and About Nature
Welcome spring and celebrate Earth Day with a weekend-long nature writing retreat at Rockvale Writers’ Colony. Nature writing is often defined as environmental literature, or as the literature of place, or as landscape writing. The borders of the genre, though, are porous; after all, most writers write about nature in one way or another—some lovingly, some strategically, some politically, some lyrically.
At this retreat, participants will hone their definitions and perceptions of nature writing. Participants will also have the opportunity to spend time outside, engage with natural landscapes, learn mindfulness practices to deepen their sensory and intuitive experiences of the natural world and practice writing about nature in inventive ways.These practices will be designed for people who feel a desire to write directly about the land in a variety of genres, as well as for people who want to learn to develop richer, more realistic, and more meaningful settings for their creative work.
All workshops will be led by Melissa Jean, Assistant Professor of Mindfulness Studies and Creative Writing at Lesley University, and previous retreat leader of 2019’s Mindfulness and Nature Writing retreats.