ecobiography: writing the self in the natural world

An ecobiography is a lifewriting text that places the writer’s identity and experiences within the context of the natural world, positioning the writer within what might be called an ecosystem, or web of integrated, interdependent organisms.  The text generally encompasses more than a single encounter with nature (e.g., “How I Climbed Mt. Everest”), instead reflecting the influences of the natural world upon the writer’s personal development or life stages. This integration in the environment may even be within an urban, rather than rural or wilderness, setting and may challenge the dichotomy of human vs nature. Ecobiography often creates new structures to portray this relationship through non-linear narration, juxtaposition of plot and place, or synthesis of memoir and nature writing techniques.

In this three-day non-residential workshop, writers will create their own ecobiographies, non-fiction stories incorporating both description of the natural world that they inhabit and narration of the life events that have been influenced or shaped by that environment.  We will discuss ecobiographies such as Janisse Ray’s Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, Terry Tempest William’s Refuge, and Henry David Thoreaus’s Walden as models for our own writing. Mornings will be spent in group discussions and writing practice, while afternoons will provide individual time for writing within the agricultural setting of Stonebridge Farm, a working organic community-supported farm outside Boulder, Colorado. At the end of each day, the group will meet to share their work and inspirations for revision. The farm will provide a morning treat, simple lunch, and late-afternoon snack each day. Three-day retreat: $325. Accommodations are available in Boulder or in the nearby foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

The workshop will be facilitated by Kayann Short, Ph.D., a faculty member at the University of Colorado-Boulder with over 25 years experience teaching writing, lifewriting, and women’s literature. The co-owner of Stonebridge Farm, she has been developing the genre of ecobiography as a bridge between her writing, teaching, and farming lives.