Writing Urban: Nature in the City

INSTRUCTOR: Rebecca Spears

TIME: Saturday and Sunday, August 13 and 14, 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. CST

PRICE: Early bird price: $85 for members, $100 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Sunday, August 7. After Sunday, August 7: $100 for members, $115 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here.

LOCATION: Writespace, 1717 Michigan Street, Houston, TX, 77006 (map)

LEVEL: All Levels

CAP: 15

Yes, it is true that the landscape changed a little.

Where there were forests, now there are pears of factories, cisterns.

Approaching the mouth of the river we hold our noses.

Its current carries oil and chlorine and methyl compounds.

—Czelaw Milosz, “Advice”

About 80 percent of all Americans live in urban areas, according to the last census. Crammed together as we are, many of us feel cut off from nature as our cities continue to encroach upon formerly wild areas. Yet if we carefully observe our lives in cities and suburbs, we might find unique ways that our lives intersect with plants and animals as they adapt or face extinction.

Nature will always crisscross with our busy lives—cities generate their own weathers. Urban seasons alter our experience of natural processes. Perhaps you have paused to admire patches of nature in the city—the parks, the gardens, the trails. These bits of nature sometimes evoke restorative calm in us or regret and loss. Then there are times when the natural world causes us fear as it strikes back at us with a vengeance—with wicked heat or cold, flooding, tornadoes, and hurricanes. In the urban landscape, we are reminded of the beauties and the overwhelming power of nature.

In this seminar, we will explore the intersections of the natural world in our cities and neighborhood. We will take a look at model forms in poetry and prose. In addition, we’ll practice drafting passages paying attention to unexpected junctures of nature and the city. Finally, we’ll look at submission possibilities for your writing on urban nature.