English 361WN - Advanced Creative Writing Topics: 'Writing Nature After Nature'

How has writing about nature changed as we face the unfolding crises of our climate? Is there a poetics of climate change, a narrative form suitable for fiction, a nonfictional style that attends to the experience of living "after nature"? This course will ask us to enlarge our environmental imaginations by writing into and beyond the assumed conventions of nature writing and by challenging what and who the subjects of this form may be. We'll read contemporary writers such as Vandana Singh, Ed Roberson, Juliana Spahr, Tommy Pico, Cherie Dimaline, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Camille Dungy, and Nnedi Okorafor. We will also look back to the history of the genre for evidence of its possibilities and limits as we create our own texts using tools developed through study, workshop, and creative practice throughout the course.

Prereq: ENGL-201.