From Nature Poetry to Ecopoetry: A Hands-on Workshop
Environmental Writing Studio Workshop with Brady Fauth and Julia Ludewig
13.02.2025 10:30 – 12:00
Location: conference room, fourth floor, RCC
Nature poetry, according to Wendell Berry, is a form that “considers nature as subject matter and inspiration” and has prevailed in the literary canons of all languages and cultures—from Rilke to Wordsworth and Whitman to Ryōkan.
But what is ecopoetry, and how might it be different? John Shoptaw states “an ecopoem needs to be environmental and it needs to be environmentalist . . . more than the vocabulary of nature.”
This workshop engages with four selected poems (circulated in advance) to uncover examples of ecopoetry from around the world. We analyze form, subject, and style to find what draws this genre together, and what pulls it apart, to understand how it inspires, and why, now more than ever, it is so necessary. In this workshop, we will also encourage participants to craft their own poem by following the prompts and guidelines we provide.
The workshop is open to all who are interested. No prior experience reading, writing, or analyzing poetry is required.
The workshop is limited to 15 people. To sign up, please email pauline.kargruber@rcc.lmu.de.
About the Presenters:
Brady Fauth is an editor, a writer, a carpenter, sometimes a teacher, and a PhD candidate at LMU. His work focuses on the literature of migration and the role of artistic movements in twentieth-century fiction.
Julia Ludewig is an associate professor of German at Allegheny College, USA. She is an interdisciplinary teacher-scholar who is fascinated by stories and how they shape societies. In both her academic and her poetic worlds, writing is her preferred mode of thinking through the things that matter.
This is an Environmental Writing Studio event. If you want to find out more about the RCC's writing studio, please go to this tab.