Ecopoetics with Mary Newell

Writing Ecopoetry with Mary Newell

“Ecopoetry” describes a broad array of poetry that engages with ecological concerns. In this four week online workshop, poets at all levels of experience can hone their skill and compose new poetry in response to the living world and the ecological crisis. We will read and discuss some exemplary poetry to discover methodologies to apply to your own writing. We will consider how elements of poetics such as form, imagery, sonority, and meter can support extending our ecological awareness on both immediate and larger scales. We will also discuss how scientific, historical, or topical information can interleave with poiesis to balance fact and affect in your writing.

The connection of poiesis to ecology implies an acknowledgement that humans are intermeshed with the ecosphere as a whole. Instead of treating the natural world as a background for human endeavor or an object of observation, we begin by trying to sense our zones of connectedness and estrangement, while coming to terms with the ways humans have permanently altered the natural world. Paradigms of kinship offer positive options in the face of ecological loss. The variety of prompts offered will allow you ample choice of topics and approaches. This workshop will stimulate you in articulating in verse your sensory and affective responses to this crucial moment in planetary history.

Mary Newell authored the poetry chapbooks Re-SURGE and TILT/ HOVER/ VEER, poems in journals and anthologies, and essays including “When Poetry Rivers” (Interim journal 38.3). She is co-editor of Poetics for the More-than-Human-World: An Anthology of Poetry and Commentary and the forthcoming Routledge Companion to Ecopoetics. Newell teaches creative writing at the University of Connecticut. She is an ardent gardener of pollinator-friendly plants.

Newell (MA Columbia, BA Berkeley) received a doctorate from Fordham University with a focus on environment and embodiment in contemporary women’s writing.