25 BRITTANY BORGHI – ENVIRONMENTAL WRITING – FALL 2017
The Art and Craft of Environmental Writing
Instructor: Brittany Borghi
3:30-4:45 PM TTh
Fall 2017
REQUIRED TEXTS
Course Packet
Available at Zephyr Printing and Design on the Ped Mall downtown
About a Mountain, John D’Agata, ISBN 978-0-393-33901-7
Available at Prairie Lights bookstore
REQUIRED MATERIALS
You are required to keep a course notebook during our time together this semester. It can be a spiral bound Mead, a silky smooth Moleskine, a flip-top reporter notebook, a ninety-nine cent CVS composition notebook—whatever works for you. I simply require that you have a place to keep your notes and observation from your readings and work for this class. It will be a part of your final grade, which you will see detailed below.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
“You’ve got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.”
―Annie Dillard
You have signed up for this class, ostensibly, because you believe that the environment matters—and that it is worth writing about. This idea can take many forms. It is my general observation that creative environmental writing moves between two poles: immersed writing about an environmental experience and journalistic wondering about an environmental issue. In this class, we will take time to consider writing that lives at either side of that spectrum—and we will challenge ourselves by investigating texts that bridge the gap between the two. We will look at positions taken by writers, journalists, and activists on the ground, facing a particular environmental issue. We will consider the poetics of writers who allow themselves to be sublimated by the natural world. These “environmental issues” will range in scope from the birth of a single fish to the role of all the cosmos.
Our reading will be rigorous, our writing will be honest, and our process will be critical. I intend this to excite you—not intimidate you.
You will follow in the footsteps of the great writers we study, immersing yourself in your own semester-long writing project about a subject of your choice. This could mean following an environmental researcher for the semester and producing a magazine-style piece about their work. It could also mean spending a series of weekends making observational hikes through Hickory Hill Park, documenting your experiences, waiting to see. You will propose your topic to me in the third week of class; have a mini workshop about a short, prompted start to your essay; and finally, have a full workshop of your longer piece in the second half of class. This project will account for forty percent of your final grade. Details will follow in both the syllabus and in class.
Working together as a group of creative, empathetic writers, we will workshop each student’s work twice throughout the semester, as mentioned above. The rules for workshop are deceptively simple, but need to be adhered to by everyone in the class at every meeting. Workshop is a vulnerable moment for every writer, and some of you may be experiencing a creative writing workshop for the first time. It might be scary or intimidating, but we will build our wings on the way down.
We’ll do that, in large part, by helping one another.
OUR COMMUNITY
By taking this class, you have dipped your toe into the creative writing community of Iowa City. Welcome! It’s a great place to be. As such, I will promote that you take advantage of this moment as a way to help us build community as a class.
Consider adding the following nonfiction readings to your calendar. These are all amazing and accomplished writers from whom we can learn many things—and I may offer extra credit for attending a reading or two, as the semester progresses! I would also recommend finding a group of friends to attend with from this class. You could, as a friendly a suggestion, meet up for coffee or pizza after the reading, discuss what you enjoyed, and talk about your own writing together. This part isn’t extra credit, but doesn’t it sound really nice? You can and should happily coordinate these kinds of events in this class, and I will remind you of the readings when they are coming up.
NWP FALL READING SCHEDULE
Wednesday, August 30, 7 PM, Prairie Lights Books: Inara Verzemnieks reading (NWP alum)
Tuesday, September 12, 7 PM, Prairie Lights Books: Susan Futrell reading (NWP alum)
Monday, September 18, 7 PM, Prairie Lights Books: Brendan Wolfe reading
Thursday, October 12, 7 PM, Van Allen Hall: Kiese Laymon reading (Bedell Distinguished Visiting Writer)
Monday, November 6, 7 PM, Biology Building East 101: John Richardson reading (Ida Beam Distinguished Visiting Professor)
I would also like this class to become a community of its own. My hope is that we can find time to schedule at least one sunrise hike in Hickory Hill Park on a Saturday this fall. We will, of course, follow this up with breakfast. I would also like to see if we can get a group together to participate in the Iowa River cleanup on September 17. If you are interested, and if you have a canoe, please let me know. I think it would be great to represent ourselves at this event as a class. (If someone decides to immerse themself in the environment of the Iowa River, this might also be a great event to attend on your own.)
Finally, I would love to schedule a semester’s end reading just for our class, somewhere in public. Your hard work deserves to be shared and it deserves to be heard in public. I’ll let you know how this develops, and if you have any preferences for where you would like to read, please send them my way.
Again, none of this is for a grade, but the closer we decide to be, the better our experience in this class experience—and our workshops—will be.
WORKSHOP
Workshop rules go like this:
- We will sign up for workshop slots at the beginning of the semester.
- You will bring 18 copies of your essay to class the week before you are scheduled to be workshopped. Those copies will be distributed to the class.
- Your classmates will take your essay home, read it at least two times through, and write you a series of thoughtful comments throughout your work.
**Each person will also write a personal note to the workshop participants, at least one paragraph in length, either typed or carefully handwritten on the essay itself, discussing the essay’s strengths and opportunities for growth. This will be graded for completion.**
- During workshop, the essayist whose work is being discussed will give the class any pointers or concerns they have about the piece before we begin. Once workshop officially starts, that writer will remain completely silent. This writer should take notes.
- The class will patiently and carefully discuss what the essay is about, what we think the writer is trying to do, what the essay’s strengths are, what isn’t working, what we might like to see it reach for, and what we admire about what is already being done. This is not a place to line edit someone’s work.
- After workshop concludes, that writer has the opportunity to ask the class any clarifying questions they have left. Discussion will then conclude, and everyone will pass their marked essays and comment sheets to me.
- You will schedule a mandatory meeting with me to discuss your workshop and your project the week after it concludes. I will then give you feedback from your peers and from me.
- Note: What happens in workshop stays in workshop. We will not share student essays with other people outside of this class, even if we think they are amazing. We will not gossip about someone after workshop, even if they cry in front of us. Crying is fine.
It your responsibility as a person in this workshop to come prepared and ready to discuss your peers’ work openly and with constructive kindness, not only as a function of your grade, but also as a matter of respect and care for yourself and your classmates. Sharing creative writing is a very personal task, and we have to be able to trust one another as honest actors if we’re going to feel comfortable sharing our most challenging work. The pieces you bring to workshop will be in transition and no one’s will be perfect. It is and always will be a challenge to figure out how to be openly critical of someone’s work while still being respectful to that person.
This is, by no means, an exhaustive list of the things we need to do in workshop, and I will answer questions (and we will create new social norms as a class) as issues arise.
ASSIGNMENTS
Immersion Project
Thirty Five Percent
This is the Alpha Dog. The Pinus Contorta. The saguaro par excellence. The reason you’re in this class. You will choose a reasonably accessible (read: local) issue of some environmental import or relation and you will immerse yourself in that topic for the semester. What does immersion mean? For each of you, it will mean something different, but the main idea is this: I want you to treat your issue or topic as a giant swimming pool. You’re going to jump into the deep end, learn to tread water, figure out where the bottom and sides of the pool are, and learn how to swim to the other side. Perhaps this means you will spend the semester interviewing important stakeholders on the issue, spending a few weekends of the year following them around at their jobs. For others, immersion might mean charting new trails through the woods surrounding Iowa City, getting to know the local tree and bird populations, meeting the forest on its own terms. Regardless of the path you choose, charting it is up to you.
Date Requirements:
- Week of September 5: Meet with me during office hours to propose your topic.
- By October 19: Complete first prompted essay, workshop, and post-workshop feedback meeting.
- By December 7: Complete second essay draft, workshop, and post-workshop feedback meeting.
- By Monday, December 11, at noon: Substantially revised essay drafts may be submitted to my mailbox (308 EPB) for optional verbal feedback during finals week. This will not count toward your grade. You must secure a meeting time with me during the last week of class and electronic submissions will not be accepted.
Length Requirements:
- Mini Workshop I: 5-7 pages
- Workshop II: 5-15 pages
I will grade your projects based on two measures: completion and excellence. Completing the basic requirements above will earn you a proficient grade on the project. Proving yourself to me as an engaged writer who is pushing the boundaries on their capabilities and actively demonstrating commitment to this work through your abilities on the page will move you into the “excellence category” and thus earn you a higher grade. See a further breakdown under Grades, below.
Course Notebook
Twenty Percent
This is an intensive course that requires a high level of both reading and writing, and much of the course is dedicated toward learning to read and write like a writer. This may prove to be somewhat different from how you read and write for your other academic courses. Your course notebook is where you will document your progress in this process, including your notes on the readings you do for this class. This is not simply to ensure that you “do the readings” but that you are also thinking about thoughtful and new ways to contribute to discussion. Keeping a journal over the course of the semester will help you to track your progress, keep an eye on what interests you, and find places to build new strengths.
Each reading will be accompanied by a series of questions that you must answer in your course notebook. I will grade your notebooks according to the following, subjective criteria:
- Exceptional/A Responses: Each question answered, at least one paragraph in length per response. All entries completed over the course of the semester. Additional notes and curiosities documented with an obvious degree of interest and engagement.
- Proficient/B Responses: Each question answered, at least one sentence per response. All entries documented over the course of the semester. Additional notes and curiosities documented with an eye toward completion.
- Fine/C Responses: Each question answered, but perhaps not thoroughly enough. Roughly one sentence per response. Scant additional notes.
- Lacking/D or F Responses: Missing responses. No care for thoroughness. No curiosity.
Every day that we have a reading due, I will go around the room to “spot check” your notebooks. After our final reading of the semester, I will collect your notebooks and administer a more thorough grade to them. If you need a checklist for what is necessary within the notebook, simply run back through the readings on the syllabus and see if they are present in your notes.
One-Pagers
(Graded on Completion, Part of Course Notebook Grade)
For each class discussion about a reading, two members of our class will present a brief, informal one-pager. What’s a one-pager? It is, quite simply, one white page, covered in black text. For each reading you’ll be answering a series of questions in your notebook, jotting down your general observations and thoughts. This will help us spur discussion. When you are assigned to present your one-pager, you will consolidate your thoughts, ideas, and questions, into a one-page (seriously—can’t emphasize this enough) informal mini-essay documenting your thoughts for the class. Your one-pager is simply your mind on the page, considering whatever aspects of the reading most stick out to you. No requirements. No formatting rules. Just you, your ideas, and the one-page. You’ll read your one-pager to the class on the day you are assigned, and we’ll use it as a way to dive in to a larger conversation. I won’t collect these—I’ll simply give you a completion grade for having done yours. Use this as incentive to be creative, thoughtful, and as deep as you want to be. I’m already excited to hear them.
Class Participation
Twenty Percent
The nature of succeeding in a creative writing class involves a modicum of performance. Yes, you have to show up to class every day in order to be counted as attending, but you also need to be actively engaged in class. I will objectively grade your presence in class each day by taking roll, and I will grade your contribution subjectively by making note of how present, active, and interesting you are in class. And I do mean interesting. I want to hear new, exciting, personal, creative ideas about how you interpret these texts.
If you actively participate—talking in discussion, showing that you’ve read, demonstrating independent thought, asking questions, being kind and respectful to your fellow students—you’ll get a better grade. Actively detract from class by being disrespectful to your fellow classmates, indicating that you haven’t read, refusing to self regulate by talking too much or speaking over your classmates, refusing to participate in activities and you’ll get a much lower grade. It is important to note that simply talking “a lot” does not guarantee you a better grade. Being understanding and compassionate toward everyone’s thoughts and ideas while also thoughtfully extending your own is the golden mean in this course. Reach for it, strive for it, and watch yourself grow.
Skip class, and you get a zero for the day. During your workshop feedback meetings, you may feel free to discuss your participation grade with me.
Workshop Responses
Five Percent
At least one paragraph in length, written or typed, for each essay you workshop. Graded for completion out of thirty-four points, one point for each workshop that is not your own.
GRADES
For Creative Work
{A}: Excellent work that shows initiative and sophistication that goes beyond general expectations. The writing is well crafted and reflects a commitment to the creative process. The writer is capable of analyzing, reflecting and revising so that the work improves over time and reflects skills gained in the course of the class. The writer takes risks in service to the work.
{B}: Strong work. The writing is well crafted and demonstrates that the writer is engaged with the creative process in ways that are above average. The writer demonstrates attempts to reflect, and analyze his or her writing and can make some choices about revision. Risks are taken, some may be more successful and resonant than others, but they show an attempt to serve the work.
{C} Competent work that meets the basic requirements. The writer’s work could be stronger with more engagement with the creative process. The writer has composed essays that reflect varying levels of success. There is some revision, but it’s superficial. Overall the work does not show a full commitment to receiving and incorporating feedback.
{D} Weak work that falls below the basic requirements. The writing produced is brief or not fully developed. The writing does not show an engagement with the creative process and does not reflect the writer’s potential.
{F} Unacceptable work. It exhibits fundamental problems, which consistently go unaddressed or ignored. The work is frequently incomplete. Writing that does not represent the writer’s original work will get an F.
A—F scale based on performance in the grade categories detailed above.
A+: 98-100 B+: 87-89 C+: 77-79 D+: 67-69 F: 59 and below
A: 93-97 B: 83-86 C: 73-76 D: 63-66
A-: 90-92 B-: 80-82 C-: 70-72 D-: 60-62
ATTENDANCE
You may miss two classes excused or unexcused. Every day missed over two days will cost you half of a letter grade on your final grade. (If there is some outstanding medical emergency that occurs, please talk to me and we will work out a plan. If a major illness happens early in the semester that causes several absences, you should speak with your advisor about reconsidering this course.)
If you anticipate that you will miss class for some reason, excused or otherwise, please just shoot me a quick email noting that you will miss class and why. No matter what it is that’s causing you to miss class, it’s very helpful for me to know that you will not be in attendance. Knowing your current status won’t make me “mad at you” or anything like that. The more in touch we are, the better. (To a degree. Please don’t find my cell number and call me at four in the morning. You get it.)
OUR TECHNOLOGY
Imagine a world in which I laid out all of the above and then said, “And yes, please use your cell phones and check Facebook in every class.” The ideas are incompatible. It just wouldn’t happen.
That said, we will all abide by a strict technology policy. If I see you using your cell phone or laptop in class for an unassigned purpose, you’ll lose all participation points for that day. It will be as if you had not attended class at all. See Class Participation for why this matters. If I see you on your phone or computer for a second day, your participation grade will drop by one full letter grade (from an A to a B, for example). If it happens a third time, you’ll automatically drop to an F in participation. This is a matter of engagement, respect—especially when it comes to workshop time and your work is being displayed to others. It would be at the least distracting and at the most mortifying to look around the room and wonder if people are Tweeting out your prose to all their followers. Not a good look. In addition, this is about learning valuable life skills. You will need to sit through many important and potentially boring things in life where you won’t be able to escape to the world of technology. Learning how to break the habit now will only help you later.
Important Note: If I assign you a reading that isn’t in our course packet or book, which I reserve the right to do, you are required to print the reading and bring the real sheets of paper to class.
OUTSIDE WORK
Students often want their creative writing teachers to critique work that they are not assigned in that particular class. Because I am very busy and because I want our time together to be focused on the content of this class, I will not be offering advice on creative work for other classes. I actively want you to bring your essays from this class to office hours for discussion, and I don’t want to preclude anyone from my time in order to discuss someone’s outside work.
I will actively promote, however, the idea that you might find careful and generous readers among your peers, who will happily and capably read your other creative work. If it is of interest, I will happily set up a Discussion Post on ICON to allow people to sign up for an Outside Reading Group. You could use that Discussion Post to propose meeting times and locations, for example.
CLASS SCHEDULE
Titles listed underneath dates will be discussed on that day. Come prepared with notes and points to discuss during that day.
All items on the calendar are subject to change. Changes will be announced in class or over email/ICON announcements. Be sure to check your email daily to stay on top of announcements for all of your classes.
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August 22
FIRST DAY OF CLASS
Cahto Creation Myth
Is There a God?
Terry Tempest Williams: Why I Write
Immersion by the Iowa River (make sure this gets stapled into your Course Notebook, if you don’t already have one)
August 24
Syllabus, Assignments, Expectations: Our Class
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August 29
IN THE BEGINNING
Daniel Defoe: The Storm, Chapters I—III
Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Nature”
Henry David Thoreau: “Walking”
One Pagers: Brittany! And?
Notebook Questions:
- Some might find the language in these pieces difficult to parse. Regardless, you should do the work to connect. What commonality can you find between your own concerns and the concerns of these writers?
- How do Defoe, Emerson, and Thoreau bridge the gap between philosophical pondering and lived experience of the natural world?
- List your favorite line or series of lines from one of these essays. Read it out loud to yourself several times. Why does it work for you? What elements of craft and style can you locate in those lines? In short, what makes it work for you?
August 31
River Reading and Constructive Conversation
Notebook Obligation:
Bring a revised version of your river immersion writing from the first day. Either write it in your notebook or staple in a sheet of printer paper. We will read sections of these brief pieces out loud in class, and discuss our work.
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September 5
ON ORIGIN
- Scott Momaday: The Way to Rainy Mountain selection
John Muir: My First Summer in the Sierras, “In Camp on the North Fork of the Merced”
One-Pagers:
Notebook Questions:
- If we consider Momaday and Muir as different “origin” writers, tangential to but separate from Emerson, Thoreau, and Defoe, what differences do you see in the nature of Momaday and Muir’s writings? How do they present a different kind of beginning to our journey in this class?
- What is happening between the multiple voices in The Way to Rainy Mountain? How do those voices construct an understanding of the environment Momaday writes about? What is that understanding?
- John Muir is one of the fathers of the American National Parks system, and much of what the federal government decided to designate as parkland came from descriptions of his writings. What comes to the surface in Muir’s writing that could persuade a nation to action? What emotion or agency is present here? Most importantly: How is it conveyed on the page?
September 7
ON LIVING IT
Annie Dillard: “The Weasel” and “Total Eclipse”
Terry Tempest Williams: “Prologue” “Burrowing Owls” and “Whimbrels”
One-Pagers:
Notebook Questions:
- Here is a different sort of immersion. How are life and environment entwined for Dillard? Williams?
- Williams produces braided essays that coordinate her mother’s illness and the Wasatch region. What effect does this have? How does the juxtaposition change your understanding of each? What combined, third entity is created?
- These two writers have very different voices. How does voice impact what you feel and know about each writer? Write our your favorite line from Dillard or Williams. How should it be read out loud?
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September 12
IN MACRO
Diane Ackerman: “Wild Heart, Anthropocene Mind” and “Is Nature Natural Anymore?”
One-Pagers:
Notebook Questions:
- How does Ackerman manage to cover so much content in such a relatively small space?
- Does Ackerman ever answer the questions she poses for us? Does she need to? What kind of mind do you see represented by these questions, in these essays?
September 14
IIHR Tour with Gabriele Villarini. Meet at EPB and walk over together.
Notebook Obligation:
Write a 1-3 page creative, reflective essay on our visit, in any style, voice, or mode you choose, considering the question: Why does the public need to know about this work?
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September 19
ON INVESTIGATION PART I
Rachel Carson: “Flood Tide” and “Birth of a Mackerel”
Jennifer Percy: “I Have No Choice but to Keep Looking”
One-Pagers:
Notebook Questions:
- How do Carson and Percy represent different attempts at investigation? What kind of work would have been necessary to produce each one of these different investigations?
- Carson seems to write from within the natural world. Pull out three particular sentences from Carson’s essays that feel as if you are being “dropped in” to a specific moment or experience. For each sentence, highlight the words, phrases, images, etc. that you think make that move work.
- Percy, then, drops us into the human experience as a direct result of environmental manipulation. Do the same work you did in Question 2 for Percy’s essay.
September 21
ON PERSPECTIVE AND CRAFT
Joy Williams: “Cabin Cabin” and “Save the Whales, Screw the Shrimp”
Robin Kimmerer: “Speaking of Nature”
One-Pagers:
Notebook Questions:
- Using Kimmerer’s notions about repositioning ourselves toward nature, rewrite one sentence each from “Cabin Cabin” and “Save the Whales, Screw the Shrimp” that takes Kimmerer’s notions into account, or takes on Kimmerer’s voice.
- Which version do you like better? Why? What makes the better version work for you?
- Thinking about your own immersive project, write a brief, one-page essay from the perspective of a non-human entity you have encountered, ala “Cabin Cabin.” Be prepared to share with the class.
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September 26
Mini Workshop I: : ___________________ & ___________________&___________________
September 28
ON LYRICISM
Lia Purpura: “There Are Things Awry Here”
Eliot Weinberger: “The Stars” “Fall” and “Winter”
Walt Whitman: “The Weather, Does it Sympathize with the Times?”
IN MICRO
Peter Wohlleben: “The Language of Trees”
Eduardo Galeano: Genesis, “First Voices”
One-Pagers:
Notebook Questions:
- Lots of poetics this week. Choose Purpura, Weinberger, or Whitman. How do voice and craft and content collide to form this writer’s final project? Describe their most salient traits in your own words. What makes this writer’s work tick?
- Using your choice from Question 1, rewrite a full paragraph from your current project draft in the voice of that author.
- Does “First Voices” allow us to unlearn or relearn what we know about the world? What’s the difference?
- Write out three phrases or sentences where Wohlleben seems to be speaking the language of trees. How do form and content collide in this essay?
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October 3
Mini Workshop I: ___________________ & ___________________&___________________
October 5
ON LANDSCAPES
Gretel Ehrlich: “A Storm, The Cornfield, and Elk”
James Galvin: The Meadow (A Selection)
Campbell McGrath: “Sunset, Route 90, Brewster County”
One-Pagers:
Notebook Questions:
- Choose the image from McGrath’s essay that is the most important to the understanding of the overall piece. Which image is it? How does the rest of the essay depend on that image?
- How many voices are speaking in this selection from The Meadow? How do they speak together to create a new whole?
- What qualities in Ehrlich and Galvin’s prose work to represent the environment around them? Which mirror the landscape of the American West? Using your own words, tell me how they work to reflect the way you perceive the landscapes in front of these writers.
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October 10
Mini Workshop I: ___________________ & ___________________&___________________
October 12
Mini Workshop I: ___________________ & ___________________&___________________
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October 17
Mini Workshop I: ___________________ & ___________________&___________________
October 19
Mini Workshop I: ___________________ & ___________________&___________________
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October 24
To be determined, either:
IN IMAGE
GRIZZLY MAN
THE GLEANERS AND I
OR
ON FOOD
Matthew Gavin Frank: “Florida” and “Iowa” from The Mad Feast
Michael Pollan “Power Steer”
One-Pagers:
Notebook Questions:
TBD based on reading
October 26
Workshop II: ________________________________&________________________________
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October 31
Workshop II: ________________________________&________________________________
November 2
Workshop II: ________________________________&________________________________
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November 7
Workshop II: ________________________________&________________________________
November 9
Workshop II: ________________________________&________________________________
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November 14
Workshop II: ________________________________&________________________________
November 16
Workshop II: ________________________________&________________________________
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November 21
THANKSGIVING BREAK
November 23
THANKSGIVING BREAK
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November 28
ON INVESTIGATION PART II
John D’Agata: About a Mountain
Notebook Questions:
- Yucca Mountain is our focus, but there are several coordinating threads in this text. List them all. Which are the most compelling? Imagine erasing one thread from this book. Which one would you eliminate? How would it change the text?
- Note the passage (series of paragraphs, short collection of pages) that contains the most movement or change within the text. How do we move through this passage? What changes from the beginning to the end? Does the prose push or pull us through? Explain. How are we changed as readers?
- How does Levi’s suicide inform our understanding about Yucca Mountain? If the ending of this book isn’t a resolution, what is it? Does the book end? Why or why not? How?
November 30
Workshop II: ________________________________&________________________________
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December 5
Workshop II: ________________________________&________________________________
December 7
LAST DAY OF CLASS
Tearful goodbyes, maybe one more reading, urgent missives, careful hugs, delicious snacks