Writing From Nature Workshop with Robert Michael Pyle

Over the course of a day together in a setting rich in natural stimuli, Bob will share a number of tips, strategies, and rhetorical approaches that he has found helpful in developing his own relationship as a writer with the real physical world that we often call "Nature." All forms of writing, and all subjects, can be enriched by careful attention to the specific details of the living world beyond but including humans, and all texts may be improved by adhering to certain practices when it comes to laying down language on paper to be read. These will be our assumptions as we gather to explore how we might all respect and reflect nature better in our own words.

After talk, we will separate and go outdoors to seek materials, stimuli, and whispers from our own particular muse, be it mushroom, mallow, or mallard. Then we will reassemble to rewrite, refine, and finally read our pieces for gentle and constructive response. When we go forth, it will be with a refreshed sense of the world around us and a sharpened ability to serve as amanuenses to the land.

Bob Pyle has lived, written, and studied natural history in the Willapa rain for 45 years. His book Wintergreen is considered a Northwest classic. His 27 others include ten nonfiction titles, eight butterfly books, four poetry collections, and one novel, Magdalena Mountain, with a sequel in progress. The recent Tidewater Reach is a love song to the Lower Columbia, and Nature Matrix has been called "a master noticer's lifework." His latest collection, The Last Man in Willapa, has just been published by Texas Tech University Press. A Yale-trained ecologist and a Guggenheim Fellow, Pyle has received awards both for his writing and for his work in conservation biology. The late Brian Doyle called him "one of the best nature writers in the world, period."

Location is a private home in Alderbrook (Astoria neighborhood) and will be given to registered participants.

Bring a brown bag lunch with you, sturdy walking shoes, and writing materials. 

This special workshop has limited space.