WK 46

Relationships and Interactions: An Eco-Fiction Writing Workshop

The important academic research ecologists complete has the opportunity to inform the rest of the world of new perspectives about our environment and the harmony and turmoil that exists among interacting organisms.  These findings are routinely shared with like-minded ecologists, but these deeply revealing findings are rarely consumed or considered by those outside of the field of ecology. A promising avenue for broader dissemination of ecological knowledge is through creative writing.  Well written stories have the capacity to connect with readers and convey important, timeless messages.  There is certainly no shortage of compelling material in ecology that could be used to tell interesting and informing stories for a range of audiences including students and the wider public.   

Our proposed two-hour workshop will demonstrate how ecologists can write their own ecology-based fiction to tell compelling stories and inform audiences of important ecological relationships.  In this interactive and multimodal experience, participants will engage in a number of creative writing activities and story starters to ignite new creative processes.  Both experienced and novice creative writers are encouraged to attend.