Class Title: Words In Place: Reconnecting to Nature Through Creative Writing Instructor: Elizabeth Brennan Class Term: We are not accepting any more enrollments for Elizabeth's class; the class has started. Synopsis Experience nature afresh. Explore plants, animals, and place as a way of reconnecting with language. Class Description This writing course will lead you down a path through the realms of nature and variations of the four seasons. Through presenting a rich variety of creative techniques, exercises and examples, my aim is to inspire you as a writer to deepen your connection with nature and in the process nurture your unique, authentic voice. From direct observation of whatever is encountered in your interaction with the outdoors, you will explore ways in writing to discover afresh the purity of sense perception and progress through the realms of nature to a consideration of what it means to be human. Through observing, thinking, remembering and imagining, students will bring the inner and outer world into creative relationship in order to achieve greater perfection in what they write. Each week exercises and links to examples will be posted at the Yahoo group. Instructor and student feedback will be posted as replies to student postings. The option for private feedback from the instructor via email is also an option. Outline Unit 1: Opening our senses to the world—Haiku/Haibun hike, the zoom-lens technique and technique of the opposites, It, you and I. Unit 2: Fairest of them all—Letter to a flower, the posy of poesy, the language and true names of flowers. Unit 3: Animals in nature—animal anecdotes, questing, creative imperatives, praising and apology, being human. Student Skills, Equipment, and Time Required All writing levels and specialties are welcome. Ability to use internet, email, and a willingness to navigate a Yahoo group. Time Commitment: 2-3 hours a week or more, as there will be plenty of readings and exercises to inspire you. Tuition/Fees for this course SCN members: $96. Non-SCN members: $120. Instructor Bio Elizabeth Brennan lives in Sonoma County, CA. Her prose poems have appeared in a variety of journals including The Prose Poem: An International Journal, Key Satch(el), Lift, Paragraph, Haikupix Review and ZYZZYVA. She is author of the chapbook Sewing Her Hand to the Face of the Fleeting (Quale Press). Her work is also included in the microfiction anthology Exposure, published in the UK by Cinnamon Press, October 2010, and Bigger Than They Appear: Anthology of Very Short Poems, edited by Katerina Stoykova-Klemer, Accents Publishing, 2011. Visit her blog.