Conference to bring together environmental writers from around the country
By GREG LEMON Staff Reporter
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In an era when natural resources are being threatened and awareness of the environment and mankind's place in it are resting in the public's thought, environmental writing has become an important way to express concern and thought, said a professor of the craft from the University of Montana.
"The connection to the natural world and other forms of life has always been vital to humans," said Phil Condon. "People have also become dissatisfied with writing that gives the illusion that that relationship isn't important."
This week a handful of writers from around the country will have an opportunity to edge their craft at the 15th annual Environmental Writing Institute held at the Teller Wildlife Refuge. This year's leader is local author David James Duncan, who has written four books - two non-fiction and two novels. His book, "My Story As Told By Water," was nominated for a National Book Award in 2001.
"As a writer about wild places," Duncan is a perfect fit for the institute, said Condon.
Students will bring manuscripts they have completed or are working on and spend mornings in workshops discussing their work with other students and Duncan, according to the institute's Web site.
The conference started Thursday and will run through next Tuesday. Duncan will hold a public reading at the refuge, Saturday night at 7:30.
The institute is nationally known, said Condon. And the list of past authors who have been invited to lead the institute reads like a "who's who" of nature writers: names like Wendell Berry, Terry Tempest Williams, Rick Bass and John Elder.
The institute fits with the refuge's mission because it focuses on education, said Kate Banner, mission coordinator at the refuge.
"The Environmental Writing Institute is important to Teller because our mission is conservation, and education is a part of that process," said Banner.
"What the institute's students will learn from Duncan, will help move people to make places that are rich in resources a priority in their own lives, thereby furthering our mission at the Refuge."
Though environmental writing, in some ways has always been around, it began to gain popularity in 1962 with the release of "Silent Spring" a book by Rachel Carson that disclosed the dangers of the pesticide DDT. The book stimulated the government to put more controls on the pesticide, which was blamed for the decline of bald eagle populations nationally.
For William Kittredge, the book marked a great tension in his life.
At the time he was a farmer in southeastern Oregon and part of growing foods was using pesticides, he said.
"We're growing food. We're making the world orderly," was the mindset, said Kittredge.
"After reading 'Silent Spring" I was put in a terrific double bind by realizing that perhaps we weren't."
Kittredge has since become an accomplished writer, publishing books of essays and short stories and was co-editor on "The Last Best Place: A Montana Anthology." He has taught creative writing at the University of Montana for the last 30 years, and is a past leader of the institute.
Environmental writing brings to light many of the national and international environmental issues, he said.
"We're in an environmental crisis all over the world," said Kittredge. "Lots of things are disappearing and there's a sense of anxiety and urgency in all of that."
And in the midst of this crisis, environmental writers have an opportunity to help people look at the natural world and humanity's place in it, he said. Good writing gets readers to consider their own lives and their own surroundings.
"It's to try and persuade others, somehow through example, to look at their own places," said Kittredge. "You want (readers) to sit there and think about their own lives."
And the importance of "place" is universal, said Condon.
"So many of the writers we all return to, their writing seems to be so connected to a particular place," he said.
For environmental writers, sharing that connection with a place, whether it be a lake where they went fishing with their grandfather, or a mountain they climbed with their kids, becomes almost an obligation.
"It's possible, probably, not to have that so directly and still be a good nature writer, I'm sure it is," he said. "But I think somewhere along the line it's almost an obligation and a responsibility and a great opportunity to get close enough to a place to understand it well enough to write something new and moving about it."
Banner agrees and the ability to write about wild places in a way that is stimulating and moving is what makes Duncan an appropriate choice for the institute this year. It is not only his ability to capture what a certain place is like, but to convey its importance, that is moving, she said.
"It makes me love my place even more deeply," she said.
In light of this, having the institute at the Teller Wildlife Refuge makes sense, said Condon. Even though the institute is only five days long, it is an intense time and being at a place where the virtue of the natural world is so accessible is important.
"I think being down at the Teller Wildlife Refuge kind of jump starts everybody," he said. "Kind of reminds them of the beauty and the power of the natural world and makes everything work really well."
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