Environmental and Nature Writing: A writer’s guide and anthology

Description

Offering guidance on writing poetry, nonfiction, and fiction, Environmental and Nature Writing is a complete introduction to the art and craft of writing about the environment in a wide range of genres. With discussion questions and writing prompts throughout, Environmental and Nature Writing: A Writers' Guide and Anthology covers such topics as: • The history of writing about the environment • Image, description, and metaphor • Environmental journalism, poetry, and fiction • Researching, revising, and publishing • Styles of nature writing, from discovery to memoir to polemic The book also includes an anthology, offering inspiring examples of nature writing in all of the genres covered by the book, including work by: John Daniel, Camille T. Dungy, David Gessner, Jennifer Lunden, Erik Reece, David Treuer, Bonnie Jo Campbell, Alyson Hagy, Bonnie Nadzam, Lydia Peelle, Benjamin Percy, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Nikky Finney, Juan Felipe Herrera, Major Jackson, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, G.E. Patterson, Natasha Trethewey, and many more. Cover Half Title Also Available from Bloomsbury Title Copyright Dedication Contents Part I An Introduction to Nature and Environmental Writing 1 The Trailhead Chapter Outline Relevant readings Free write Vignette Motivations: The physical world, the internal world Nature and environmental writing The trailhead Exercises Prompts 2 A Short History of Nature and Environmental Writing Chapter Outline Relevant readings Free write Vignette A short history of nature and environmental writing The prehistory of nature and environmental writing The natural history Pastoral narratives Adventure narratives Enter: Environmental writing Wilderness and preservation narratives Agrarian narratives Science and nature narratives Environmental justice narratives Climate change narratives Postcolonial narratives Native American narratives African American narratives Latino narratives Other postcolonial narratives Other branches, other forests Exercises Prompts Part II The Craft of Nature and Environmental Writing 3 Seeing the World, Believing the World Chapter Outline Relevant readings Free write Vignette Seeing the world, believing the world Kinds of images Image is tone, action, symbol, and, well, everything Seeing is believing Exercises Prompts 4 Living Maps Chapter Outline Relevant readings Free write Vignette Place Backdrop versus character Creating place-.character The sociology and psychology of place Place and story Can there be too much place? Ways of seeing and knowing place Going deeper Exercises Prompts 5 The Writer in Place Chapter Outline Relevant readings Free write Vignette The writer in place Persona Point of view Narration categories Voice Exercises Prompts 6 People and Place Chapter Outline Relevant readings Free write Vignette People and place Common stories of people and place Creating character, seeing character Dialogue Character as desires and needs Exercises Prompts 7 The River Above, the River Below Chapter Outline Relevant readings Free write Vignette Story matters The river above: Making story The river below: Making story, making meaning Exercises Prompts 8 The Art of Activism Chapter Outline Relevant readings Free write Vignette The very nature of nature and environmental writing Whether you like it or not, you’re an activist writer The fundamentals of argumentation Who is your audience? The nitty-.gritty of making arguments Exercises Prompts 9 A World Larger than Ourselves Chapter Outline Relevant readings Free write Vignette Why research? How to research When and how to use research The larger world Exercises Prompts 10 The Nature and Environmental Essay, Story, and Poem Chapter Outline Relevant readings Free write Vignette The nature and environmental essay, story, and poem Creative nonfiction Fiction Poetry Exercises Prompts 11 One More Time to the River: Writing is Rewriting Chapter Outline Relevant readings Free write Vignette Writing is rewriting Layers of landscape: The revision process The lookout: Revising toward theme and argument Revision details Hiking partners: Writing groups, workshops, and mentors One more time to the river Revised poems Sean Prentiss, “Enough” Joe Wilkins, “Sunflower River Road” Exercises Prompts 12 A Trail Guide Chapter Outline Relevant readings Free write Vignette A trail guide (Un)natural histories and sciences The physical and the metaphysical Explorations and encounters Circling home, growing home Elegies and calls to action Breaking trail Exercises Prompts Part III Nature and Environmental Writing Anthology Creative Nonfiction Geology: An Investigation Pack Rat Tales From a Black Girl on Fire, or Why I Hate to Walk Outside and See Things Burning Nature Writing by the Numbers Exposed: The Mammogram Myth and the Pinkwashing of America Part One: The Diagnosis Part Two: The Cure Burning the Shelter Spring Ends in Bangor, Pennsylvania Hell Yeah We Want Windmills The Other Side of Fire Trapline: An Ojibwe Man’s Search for Identity on the Canadian Taiga Fiction Family Reunion Border Cartography Mule Killers The Caves of Oregon Like Bread the Light Poetry Creation Myth: Periosteum and Self I Was Popular in Certain Circles What My Neighbor Tells Me Isn’t Global Warming Weekly Apocalyptic, or Poem Written on the Wall in an Ascending Space Capsule Resurrection of the Errand Girl Water Water Water Wind Water Migration Remembering Minidoka River Keeper Emerging View Coos Bay Explaining Seafood to My Future Grandkids after the Extinction Lewis and Clark Disagree The Natural World Stripping As a Species Flies from Extinction, Consider the River Migration of Baling Twine The Feed Theories of Time and Space Seven Devils Tire Hut: Seaview, Washington Biographies Permissions Index