Is My Nature-Writing Course Out of the Question for You?
In case the urge to write more has been gnawing at you.
A few weekends ago my nephew skydived for the first time. He jumped tandem, strapped to the belly of a guy in Jacksonville, Florida whose job it is to jump out of airplanes. Jumping is all this guy does. If I wanted to do an extreme sport like skydiving, like my nephew Carlin, I would want to be linked with someone who has jumped thousands of times.
Maybe I shouldn’t be comparing a nature writing course with skydiving, since nature writing isn’t usually life or death.
But things on the Internet are confusing, and this is an Internet course, live via Zoom. It’s not in-person, mostly because I don’t live where you live. So you need some filters to see if this course is the one for you.
Let’s Assume You Can’t Take a Course at this Time
You’re busy. You have kids. You have aging parents. You have university classes. You have a full-time job.
This course is expensive, and you don’t have extra money to throw around.
But You’re Interested
You’re a writer or want to be a writer. You love nature. I’m going to make a wild guess here and say that probably you’ve read nature writing that has changed your life. Some nature book changed you permanently—it made you think differently about how you eat or travel or live or consume or parent or think about trees. You’d love to explore that more. You’d love to think deeply about a certain place on earth. You’d love to be part of the movement to translate Earth language to human language. You’d love to do your part to save the Earth. Or maybe you’re already writing about nature, but you want your writing to change people permanently the way you have been changed.
Why Finding a Good Teacher is Complicated
The Internet has changed all the rules and regulations about what people get to do.“There are no gatekeepers,” I heard an Internet marketer say, and this can be a wonderful thing. If I decide that I want to be an authority on wild-food foraging or flower arranging or astrology, I simply need to beat social-media algorithms and/or figure out online marketing. In the best of worlds, this means that nobody can stop a person from manifesting their dreams. In the worst of worlds, it allows people to become authorities because they say they’re authorities.
The new Internet reality means that you have to decide who is actually an authority.
I’m going to do something that you'll think is ridiculously egotistical, because it sounds that way. I’m going to tell you that if you’re thinking about taking my nature writing course, you should know that I’m not an authority in name only. I’m an authority in fact. Actually, I’m over-experienced for this job, and that’s a good thing, because maybe it means you want to learn from and with me.
You can find a writing teacher online who has done a lot of Internet research and has some things to offer.
But if you want to jump tandem with somebody who has logged thousands of jumps, consider signing up for my American Nature Writing Masterclass.
A Few Details
The masterclass is a 12-week course that meets on Zoom every Monday evening from 7-9 pm Eastern US Time starting Oct. 9. There’s an optional Social Time before class, and there will be optional opportunities, like guest speakers and co-working times. So it’s more than a class. It’s a whole container for people interested in this. Seriously interested. Interested enough to invest good time and money.
My Credentials
I knew I wanted to be a nature writer thirty years ago. In 1997 I earned an MFA with an emphasis in nature writing from the University of Montana, one of the first universities in the world to offer such a program. I was around when nature writing wasn’t even a thing, and I was around when it was called a “marginal literature.” And now folks are writing articles about nature writing in The New York Times. My major professor at Montana was William Kittredge, Western nature writer and a dream of a teacher, and I’ve also been able to study with
Wendell Berry
Annick Smith
Steve Bodio
Lucille Clifton
Jack Gilbert
In my work as a nature writer I’ve been able to spend time with many nature writers.
Peter Matthiessen
Bill McKibben
Rick Bass
Richard Nelson
Gary Nabhan
Pattiann Rogers
Bob Pyle
Terry Tempest Williams
Barry Lopez
Drew Lanham
John Lane
Susan Cerulean
and many, many more.
I didn’t just decide one day that I want to teach nature writing on the Internet. My credentials are right here—I have 9 published books plus 4 anthologies. My first book came out in 1999, which was not yesterday. Just saying. My work has been collected in over 40 anthologies. It wins awards. It gets translated into other languages. I’m an old-school nature writer. I’ve been in the trenches since 1995. I’ve read hundreds of books of nature writing. I’ve taught nature writing to hundreds and hundreds of folks, in semester-long courses at universities and in long weekends at retreat centers.
What It Costs
You’re going to think this course is crazily expensive, and it is. But if you really want to write about nature, then every day that you don’t take this course you are losing money—by following the wrong dream home—and you are losing valuable, precious time.
The Long and Short of It
If you want to climb Mount Everest, go hire a sherpa.
If you want to catch a marlin, go with The Old Man.
If you want to see the depths, dive with Cousteau.
If you want to swim from Cuba to Florida, find Diana Nyad.
But if you’re sitting by an open door on a plane, wondering if you should jump on this nature-writing masterclass, if I’m going to get you safely to the ground, just know that I’m the real deal. Just know that I take your life seriously. Just know that I want what you want, which is to have a few minutes every once in a while where you really fly.
You Have Three Choices for Writing Courses
I’m teaching three courses this fall, so if nature writing is not your first love, then consider the beginning memoir writing course. A dozen or so people have signed up already, and I can promise you that I’ve studied the names, and this is a stellar group of people. The course is called Write Your Own Story, and it takes place on Mondays at noon Eastern US Time for an hour. It’s much more affordable, plus it’s packed full of mini-craft lessons, writing exercises, prompts, ways to get published, and readings. There won’t be much time for sharing during the 1-hour classes. This is mostly a download from me to you, and a chance for you to make a statement: For this hour you are focused on your writing project.
Your last option from me is Magical Craft of Creative Nonfiction, which is a great class for writing CNF. A lot of fine people have taken this course, which I’ve offered for a few years now, and many of them have gone on to get book deals and to publish essays and flash essays.
Meet Me in Murfreesboro, TN on Oct. 7
Meet Me in Columbia, SC
I’ll be the keynote speaker at the South Carolina Writers Association annual conference, 2023 Storyfest. The entire conference sells out and will again this year, but I know that some spots are still available in my Friday class, Market Your Book Skyward. The cost is $85, although you may have to pay conference tuition as well. When I teach this course on my own, I charge more than $85. If you’ve published a book and want to keep helping it along (it’s never too late to push a book) or if you have a book forthcoming or if you want to help others market books (become a book publicist or book marketer), this is a very worthwhile course. I have packed all my ideas over the years into a 50-page e-book, and you’ll get a copy of that. I focus a lot on marketing outside social media. Yes, the class will overwhelm you, because there are so many ways to market, but it will also enthuse and inspire you. It’s worth quadruple the price. Truly.