Program on the Environment

Environmental Writers Workshop – Burke Museum – April 21, 2012

For the fourth year in a row, the Burke Museum brings together a trio of outstanding writers to present a one-day workshop on writing about the environment. Award-winning authors William Dietrich, Thor Hanson, and Judith Roche will lead classroom and field-based sessions, all taking place at the Burke Museum. They bring years of experience as writers, journalists, bloggers, and teachers. Each is an attentive observer who weaves together history, science, and field time into well-crafted, thought-provoking writing about the natural and cultural world.

We in the Pacific Northwest are fortunate to live not only in a place where nature abounds but also to live in place where place-based writers abound. Their writing brings in not only plants and animals, but also the human inhabitants, past and present, who dwell on the land. Whether it is exploring the wonderful world of feathers, considering the myriad ways of plants and animals of the the Pacific Northwest, or pondering the life of salmon in Seattle, these authors provoke us to reflect upon our own relationship to the natural world around us. Ultimately, they are forging a new way to look at nature and to develop deeper connections to place.

For the fourth year in a row, the Burke Museum brings together a trio of outstanding writers to present a one-day workshop on writing about the environment. Award-winning authors William Dietrich, Thor Hanson, and Judith Roche will lead classroom and field-based sessions, all taking place at the Burke Museum. They bring years of experience as writers, journalists, bloggers, and teachers. Each is an attentive observer who weaves together history, science, and field time into well-crafted, thought-provoking writing about the natural and cultural world.

Judith Roche is the author of three poetry collections, most recently, Wisdom of the Body, an American Book Award winner, which was also nominated for a Pushcart. She has written extensively about our native salmon and edited First Fish, First People, Salmon Tales of the North Pacific and has salmon poems installed at the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks in Seattle. She has been Distinguished Northwest Writer-in-Residence at Seattle University, has taught at Cornish College of the Arts, and currently teaches at Richard Hugo House.

Thor Hanson is a conservation biologist, Switzer Environmental Fellow, and member of the Human Ecosystems Study Group. His most recent book is Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle. His first book, The Impenetrable Forest: My Gorilla Years in Uganda, won the 2008 USA Book News Award for nature writing. Hanson lives with his wife and son on an island off the coast of Washington State. 

Bill Dietrich is a Washington state career journalist-turned novelist, who has covered the environment and science for the Seattle Times and other newspapers. He shared a Pulitzer for coverage of the Exxon Valdez oil spill and won a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award for his book on the Northwest timber crisis, The Final Forest. His 10 novels have been translated into nearly 30 languages. He taught environmental journalism at Huxley College of the Environment at Western. nominated for

Cost is $100, which includes lunch. Scholarships are available for students. 
For more information, please email burked@uw.edu or call (206) 543-5591.