Nature Writing Now: Intensive

What does it mean to write about nature now? We are living at a time of great ecological peril and promise, when some thinkers are questioning whether “nature” even exists. How to write about this complexity in authentic and evocative ways? How to convey both the beauty and the corruption of beauty? Together, we will consider some historical and contemporary nature writing in order to learn how the genre has changed over time alongside our cultural conceptions of self and nature. Contemporary nature writing often reflects complex social and political realities, while also reminding us of the abiding depth of feeling created by, for instance, placing one’s hand on a tree trunk and pausing to simply feel. In this course, your writing will be informed by both the timely and the timeless. You’ll be offered shared explorations in this rich, essential, and deeply meaningful way of exploring the world.

For the first 5 weeks of the class, you’ll be guided by wide-ranging prompts and discussions of readings. The next 5 weeks will support the creation of a more sustained project. This class will build off ideas of previous Nature Writing Now courses but it is not a prerequisite.

“Daniela ran a fantastic class, offering exciting material for class time as well as continued study on our own. She was supportive while still being able to help us push our writing and managed the class time really well”
– previous student, Nature Writing Now

Access Program
We want our writing classes to be accessible to everyone, regardless of income and background. We understand that our tuition structure can present obstacles for some people. Our Access Program offers writing class registrations at a reduced rate. The access program for writing classes covers 60% of the class tuition. Most writing classes have at least one access spot available. Contact Susan Moore at susan@literary-arts.org if you would like to take a writing class at the Access Rate.

Daniela Naomi Molnar is an artist and poet working with the mediums of language, image, and place. She is also a wilderness guide, educator, and eternal student. She works across forms, melding painting, poetry, prose, site-specific intervention, editing, and teaching. Her work for the past several years has been focused on  issues of climate justice and climate grief. Her mediums are pigment, paper, water, varied types of language, and varied forms of community engagement. Place is always one of her mediums. She uses these mediums to try to shape and nurture generative new ideas, ethics, and cultural change. Her forthcoming book chorus won the 2021 Omnidawn 1st/2nd book prize (selected by Kazim Ali). Her work was also the subject of a front-page feature in the Los Angeles Times, has been shown nationally, is in private collections internationally, and has been recognized by numerous grants, awards, and residencies. Daniela founded the Art + Ecology program at the Pacific Northwest College of Art, and is an all-around integral part of Signal Fire, providing opportunities for artists to learn about environmental justice by engaging with public wildlands. She holds an MFA in Poetry from Warren Wilson College, is founding Co-Editor of Leaf Litter, Signal Fire’s art and literary journal, and was Art Editor at The Bear Deluxe Magazine for many years. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Fugue, Moss, Tripwire, Bomb Cyclone, Cirque, Capitalism Nature Socialism, and elsewhere.  A member of the third generation of the Holocaust and the daughter of immigrants, she lives in Portland, Oregon, in the Cascadian bioregion, atop a buried headwaters confluence, on the unceded land of the Clackamas, Cowlitz, Chinook, Multnomah, and other Indigenous peoples.