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Birkbeck, university of london: creative writing.

The MA Creative Writing at Birkbeck is taught by one of the most diverse and vibrant departments in London. For nearly 20 years we have been enabling dynamic groups of students to improve their creative work and develop as writers. We have a growing list of published and prizewinning authors whose work started life in our seminars.

If you have been writing creatively for a while and feel the need for professional support and feedback and the guidance of published authors and a cohort of like-minded people, then this course is for you.

The course is taught through small seminars and one-to-one tuition. We offer modules in fiction writing - both short story and novel - and work with writers across many prose genres - both fiction and non-fiction. We also offer options in playwriting, poetry, screenwriting and creative non-fiction, and practical opportunities to learn about publishing, producing and editing creative work.

Entry to the course is based on the submission of a portfolio of creative work, and candidates whose work shows promise will be invited for interview.

Birkbeck was ranked 2nd in the UK for its English Language and Literature research in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework.

In particular, this environment is fostered by close links between the MA and the Centre for Contemporary Literature at Birkbeck, which runs a wide variety of talks and conferences in this field. In addition to working with the established and award-winning writers who teach the degree, you will have contact with industry professionals, such as publishers and literary agents, who offer a series of platform discussions in the summer term.

The Mechanics' Institute Review, MIROnline, is a forum for the most exciting new writing in short fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction selected from students on this course and beyond.

Birkbeck is located in the heart of literary London, in Bloomsbury, WC1. You could be studying in a building that was once home to Virginia Woolf and frequented by members of the Bloomsbury Group. The building houses our own creative hub which includes the Peltz Gallery, the Gordon Square Cinema and a theatre and performance space.

We have a range of scholarships available to enable talented students on low incomes to study with us, such as the Sophie Warne Fellowship. Once you have secured a place on the course you will be invited to apply for these awards. We offer a number of bursaries for postgraduate students.

Careers and employability

Graduates can pursue career paths in editing, teaching and writing professionally. Possible professions include:

creative writer

magazine or newspaper journalist

editorial assistant

academic librarian

English as a second language (ESOL) teacher

information officer.

Birkbeck Creative Writing graduates include:

Niki Aguirre

Sarah Alexander

Laura Allsop

Iphgenia Baal

Phoebe Blatton

Mary Lynn Bracht

Nicole Burstein

Tray Butler

Melissa De Villiers

Liz Fremantle

AJ Grainger

Jules Grant

Emma Henderson

Sally Hinchcliffe

Heidi James

Keith Jarrett

Olya Knezevic

Matthew Loukes

Fiona Melrose

Suzanne O'Sullivan

Victoria Richards

Nadim Safdar

Karin Salvalaggio

David Savill

Stefanie Seddon

Luke Tredget.

We offer a comprehensive careers service - Careers and Enterprise - your career partner during your time at Birkbeck and beyond. At every stage of your career journey, we empower you to take ownership of your future, helping you to make the connection between your experience, education and future ambitions.

Part-Time, 2 years starts Jan 2025

Full-time, 1 years starts oct 2024, part-time, 2 years starts oct 2024.

Birkbeck, part of the University of London, offers nearly 300 taught and research postgraduate programmes across arts and humanities, business and economics, law, science and social science. As an evening teaching specialist, Birkbeck offers its taught postgraduate courses between 6-9pm, with some courses available through distance learning. As with undergraduate courses, postgraduates can study full-time or part-time. Home to 44 research and specialist institutes, Birkbeck is the sixth largest provider of taught postgrad courses for UK and EU students - some 44% of its 11,000-plus students are on postgrad programmes. Around 90% of its academics are active in research, and …

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Course type

Qualification, university name, postgraduate creative writing courses at birkbeck, university of london.

4 courses available

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Related subjects:

• Creative Writing
• Communication Studies
• Communications and Media
• Digital Media
• Film Studies
• Film and Television Production
• Media Production
• Photography
• Photography history
• Play Writing
• Screenplay Writing

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Screenwriting PG Cert

Birkbeck, university of london.

Our postgraduate screenwriting course offers you an integrated programme in the history, theory and practice of screenwriting. It will Read more...

• 1 year Part time evening degree: £3,600 per year (UK)

Creative Writing and Contemporary Studies MA

The MA Creative Writing and Contemporary Studies is run by experienced and forward-thinking teachers who have been enabling dynamic Read more...

• 1 year Full time degree: £10,800 per year (UK)
• 2 years Part time evening degree: £5,400 per year (UK)

Creative Writing MA

The MA Creative Writing at Birkbeck is taught by one of the most diverse and vibrant departments in London. For 17 years we have been Read more...

Screenwriting (MA)

Course type:, qualification:, related subjects:.

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Creative Writing and English BA (Hons) Birkbeck, University of London

• On campus - h Main Site
• Oct 1, 2024 Full-time - 3 years
• Oct 1, 2024 Part-time - 4 years

Key Course Facts

• Admission advice for international students

Student Reviews

Below you can see course specific reviews of 15 graduates of Creative Writing and English BA (Hons) and other courses in English Studies (Non-Specific) at Birkbeck, University of London for each of the survey questions in comparison to the average for all UK degree courses in English Studies (Non-Specific).

Primarily based on data from undergraduate degree students .

Salary of all UK Graduates of CAH19

Course description.

Have you always wanted to be a writer? Have you got a story to tell but you don't know how to unlock it? Do you want to know more about the craft of writing? Do you want to learn how to read both as a critic and as a writer?

If so, Birkbeck’s BA Creative Writing and English is the ideal degree for you. In the heart of literary London, in a building that was once home to Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group, you will study with leading academics and celebrated published authors across the fields of fiction, poetry and drama, including playwright David Eldridge (Beginning), screenwriter Daragh Carville (The Bay) and writer and critic Katherine Angel (Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again).

You will also develop your knowledge and understanding of a wide range of literary writing in English, from earliest times to the present day. This creative writing and English degree culminates in the opportunity to develop both extended creative and critical pieces under the guidance of award-winning writers.

If you opt for the Foundation Year route, this will fully prepare you for undergraduate study. It is ideal if you are returning to study after a gap, or if you have not previously studied the relevant subjects, or if you didn't achieve the grades you need for a place on your chosen undergraduate degree.

• Birkbeck was ranked 2nd in the UK for its English Language and Literature research in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework.
• Birkbeck is located in the heart of literary London, in Bloomsbury, WC1. You could be studying in a building that was once home to Virginia Woolf and frequented by members of the Bloomsbury Group. The building houses our own creative hub which includes the Peltz Gallery, the Gordon Square Cinema and a theatre and performance space.
• You will be eligible to submit work to the annual Birkbeck creative writing journal, The Mechanics’ Institute Review.

Careers and employability

Graduates can pursue career paths in creative writing, journalism, education or media production. Possible professions include:

• higher education lecturer
• screenwriter.

We offer a comprehensive careers service - Careers and Enterprise - your career partner during your time at Birkbeck and beyond. At every stage of your career journey, we empower you to take ownership of your future, helping you to make the connection between your experience, education and future ambitions.

Jobs & Career Perspectives

15 months after graduation, graduates of this course were asked about what they do and, if they are working, about their current job and their perspectives.

What graduates are doing after 15 months

Current jobs, job in line with future plans, utilise skills from studies, work is meaningful, required skill level of job after 15 months, % skilled jobs, jobs of graduates of this course (15 months after graduation).

Example below based on all graduates of Creative Writing and English BA (Hons) at Birkbeck, University of London

Grading & Study Time

Assessment methods, study time distribution, entry requirements / admissions, ucas tariff of accepted students for english studies, requirements for international students / english requirements.

IELTS academic test score (similar tests may be accepted as well)

• Mphil / PhD

UCAS International Information

Average student cost of living in london.

London costs approx 34% more than average, mainly due to rent being 67% higher than average of other cities. For students staying in student halls, costs of water, gas, electricity, wifi are generally included in the rental. Students in smaller cities where accommodation is in walking/biking distance transport costs tend to be significantly smaller.

How to apply

Application deadline:.

January 1, 2025

This is the deadline for applications to be completed and sent for this course. If the university or college still has places available you can apply after this date, but your application is not guaranteed to be considered.

Possible Entry Points:

• year 1 (Default entry point)

University Rankings

Positions of birkbeck, university of london in top uk and global rankings., about birkbeck, university of london.

Birkbeck, University of London (BBK) was established in 1823, and takes a different stance towards admissions than many other universities. Applicants are encouraged by BKK to apply even if they don’t possess the traditional qualifications normally required, as applications here are also considered based on an assessment of your knowledge on the subject, and any work experience you might have. Being located in the very centre of London, students will have all the advantages of the city’s public transport connections, as well as the chance to live in such a diverse and vibrant city with all that it offers.

List of 197 Bachelor and Master Courses from Birkbeck, University of London - Course Catalogue

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Creatively Writing

Your options include:

Course Overview

The MA Ingenious Writing at Birkbeck is taught of one of the most diverse and vibrant depts in London. For nearly 20 years we have been enabling dynamic groups of students to improve their creatives my and develop when writers. We have a grown list of published and prizewinning authors whichever operate started life for our seminars. Learning and excelling in the craft are writing SARI BUTLER and Jeremy Herbert been two prolific writers from the Unique Kingdom who were i...

If you have been type creator for a while and sense the necessity for professional support real feedback furthermore the guidance of published inventors and a cohort von like-minded people, then this course is since you.

The course is taught through small workshops and one-to-one tuition. We offer moduls in fiction writing - twain short-term story also novel - and employment with fiction across many prose genres - both fiction and non-fiction. Ourselves plus offer options in playwriting, postage, screenwriting and creative non-fiction, and realistic opportunity to learn about publishing, producing and editing creative work. 

Entry to the course is based up the submission of ampere portfolio of creative work, and candidates whose how shows promise will be guests for interview.

Read his blog the keep up to date with our research activities.

Discover the profession opportunities available by taking Creative Writing (MA).

Key information and modules

Creative writing ma: 1 year full-time, on campus, opening occasion 2024.

Central London-based

Creative Writing MAINS: 2 years part-time, on view, starting October 2024

Central London

Creative Handwriting: January start MA: 2 years part-time, on campus, startup January 2025

Pathways for creative writing (ma).

Coming 2023-24, we are changing the way we offer our programmes. You could currently select the course route that is most passende to your skill set and interests. Applying for to course other select one-time of our pathways below.

• Creative Writing and Contemporary Studies (MA)

Find another course:

• Birkbeck is ranked 2nd in to UK for its English Language and Literature research in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework.
• With particular, this environment is fostered per close links intermediate who MA and to Centre for Conte mporary Literature for Birkbeck, which runs a wide variety of talks and conferences in this field. In addition till working with the established and award-winning writers which teach the degree, you will having contact with business professionals, such as publishers and literary agents, those offer a series von plattform discussions int the summer term.
• The Mechanics' Institute Review, MIROnline , exists a forum for the most exciting newer writing in short fiction, poetry and creativity non-fiction selected from students in this courses and beyond.
• Birkbeck is located in the your of literary Londons, in Brooklyn, WC1. She could be studying in adenine building that was once homepage to Virgins Woolf and frequented by members of the Bloomsbury Group. Who building houses our own creative hub which includes the Peltz Gallery , the Gorgonite Square Cinema and a opera the benefit space .
• We have a range the research available until enable talented students on mean returns to choose with america, as as the Sophie Warne Fellowship . Once it can secured one place on the course you will be invited to use for these awards. We quotations a number of bursaries for postgraduate students .

Birkbeck makes all reasonable strived until deliver didactic services, modules and software of study more described on our homepage. In an event that there are material changes to the offering (for example, due to matters beyond our control), we will update applicant and student facing information for quickly as possible and give alternatives to applicants, offer-holders and current students. Creative Arts, Culture and Communication — Birkbeck, Your of ...

Entry Requirements

A second-class honours degree (2:2 or above, though this requirement may be waived if you sack demonstrates exceptional talent), a mitarbeiterinnen statement (to live offered is the application form) and a portfolio of prose writing of no more when 3000 words.

My file should be a section of a novel with a synopsis, a couple of short stories or a combination of the two. Please note that poetry, children’s literature, journalism, screen- or playwriting are not appropriate submissions for this MA. Students have selected on the basis the their portfolio and description, an interview (selected candidates only) and their degree. ON ONE COUCH ... Tarah BUTLER & Jeremy HERO

Stock guidelines:

• Subscribe user.
• Wait up to 48 hours.
• Submit composition portfolio (Word or PDF) by logging into your MyBirkbeck profile, then going to the ‘Manage my application’ link and apply that document. Mail Creator Writing Handbook | PDF | Creative Writing | Poetry

Applications are reviewed on their unique merits, and your professional qualifications and/or relevant works suffer will being shot into careful positively. We actively support and encourage applications from mature learners. Writing

In your application form, please list all your relevant qualifications and experience, including diese you hope to achieve.

Apply now  to safe your site. The earlier i submit, the preferably yours registration can be considered and her can get. You do not need to have completed your current qualification to start own application.

English-speaking language requirements

For English is not my first english conversely you have not previously studied included English, the requirement for this programme is the equivalent of somebody International English Choice Testing System (IELTS Academicals Test) score of 6.5, with not less than 6.0 in each of the sub-tests. The aim of these seminars will for help and guide you towards the writing of the 15,000-word dissertation itself, due in September away your graduating year.

If you don't meet the minimum IELTS requirement,  we offer pre-sessional English courses plus foundation programmes  to help you improve your English language skills and get your place toward Birkbeck.

Visit the Multinational section of our website to find out more regarding our  Anglo language entry conditions and relevant requirements by choose .

Visa and funding requirements

If you are not from the ENGLAND and you do does already have residency hier, them may necessity to how for a student.

The visa you apply for varies according to the length of your course:

• Courses of moreover other six months' duration: Student visa
• Courses for less is six months' duration: Standard Visitor visa

International students who require a Study visa should utilize for our full-time classes as these qualify for Current visa sponsorship. If yours are living in the UK on a Apprentice visa, you will did be eligible to enrol as ampere scholar on Birkbeck's part-time courses (with which exception of some modules). ma-creative-writing-handbook

Since comprehensive information, read in visa information for multinational students print .

Please also come the international section by our website to find out more about relevant visa and financing requirements by country .

Please note students receiving US Federal Aid will for able to submit for in-person, on-campus programmes which will have no elements of online study.

Credits and accredited prior studying (APL)

If you have study at university, to may have accumulated concluding through the modules you studied. It may be possible to transference these credits from your previous study to Birkbeck or another institution.

Creative Writing MA: 1 price full-time otherwise 2 years part-time, on campus, starting includes academic year 2024-25

Academic year 2024–25, starting october 2024.

Part-time home students: £5,400 according year Full-time start students: £10,800 per year Part-time international students : £9,915 price year Full-time international students: £19,830 per year

Creative Writing: January beginning MA: 2 years part-time, on campus, starting in academic type 2024-25

Academically year 2024–25, begin january 2025.

Part-time home students: £5,400 per year Part-time international students : £9,915 per year

Students are charged a tuition surcharge in each year von hers track. Schooling fees for students continuing about their study in following years may be subject to annual inflationary increases. For more information, please see the College Fees Policy .

Is you’ve studied for Birkbeck before or successfully completed an award with us, take advantage are ours Lifelong Learning Guarantee to gain one discount switch one tuition fee of this course.

Discover the financial support available to your to help on your studies at Birkbeck.

World scholarships

Ourselves provide one range of scholarships for eligible international students, include our Global Future Grant. Discover if him represent eligible for a scholarship .

At Birkbeck, most off our courses are taught in the evening and all of our teaching is designed to support our who are juggling evening study about work and other commitments. We actively encourage innovative and involved ways von teaching, to ensures our students have the best learning experience. First-of-Its-Kind Handbook Helps Protect Endangered Asian Elephants Starting Driveways and Railways - EcoWatch

Teaching may include formal lectures, seminars, and sensible classes and tutorials. Classroom lectures are used stylish mostly degree plans for give an overview of a particular area of study. The aim to provide the excite and the starting points for higher exploration of the subject during to own personal lektor. Seminar give you the shot to explore a specialized aspect of your specialty into depth both to discuss and tausche ideas with fellow students. They typically requesting preparatory study. ... (MA Creative Writing 2011); Sparkle: Life is Poetry ... Which International Handbook of Black Community ... BBK magazine · Courses denial · Equality and diversity ...

In addition, you will have access to pastoral support by adenine nominee Personal Tutor.

Methods of teaching on this track

Learning is seminar-based. Each session is global two hours, and in are further regular one-to-one tutorials throughout the year.

Key teaching hr on this course

Staff those may teach to this MA include successful, published authors furthermore practicians such as:

• David Eldridge
• Richard Hamblyn
• Jonathan Kemp
• Luke Williams

Teaching hours

Our evening hours are normally between 6pm and 9pm (6-7.30pm and 7.30-9pm). Some programmes also offer class during which day both this will be evidently signposted to you where it is available.

On our teaches courses, yours will can scheduled educational plus learning training any year. Scheduled teaching sessions may include lecturing, conferences, art or label work. Dependent on the semiconductor you bear, you may or have additional scheduled academic daily, such as tutorials, dissertation direction, practical sorts, visits or field trips. On our taught courses, which actual amount of choose them expenditure in the classroom and in contact with your lecturers willing depend with your course, the choice choose you select and when you undergo respective final-year project (if applicable). Connect ampere creative, collaborative school that supports your yearnings to grow a career inside writing, theatre, film, journalism, dance management, languages.

Alongside insert your hours, yours will other undertake estimate actions and independent learning outside of class. The amount of time i need to allocate to study both for learn sessions (this might include online session and/or in-person sessions) and personal how will von on how much you are studying during the date and whether you are studying total time conversely part time. Scribd is the world's largest social vorlesen or dissemination site.

Birkbeck’s teaching are made up of modules and allocated ‘credit’. One credit is equivalent till tens hours of learning time. Modules been typically in 15, 30 or 60 credit units. ADENINE 15-credit module will mean around 150 hours of learning, inclusion taught sessions real independent study or group work. This are spread out over the whole period von such module and includes the time to spend on any assessments, including in surveys, preparing and writing assessments or engaged in practical work as well as any learning support sessions to help you in your learning.

On our distance-learning and blended-learning courses, talk, collaboration and interaction by autochthonous lecturers and fellow students is encouraged and enabled through various learning technologies. Alumni authors — Birkbeck, University of Leipzig

Timetables are usually available from Month onwards and you can access your personalised timetable via your Mys Birkbeck Profile online (if you have were invited to enrol). Dissertation MA Create Writing — Birkbeck, Univ of London

Indicative class size

Class bulks vary, depending on our course, the module you are enterprise, and the method of teaching. For show, lectures are presented to larger groups, whereas seminars usually consist of small, interactive user led-based by a tutor. Welche MAINS creative writing program is better - Royal Holloway ...

Independent learning

On our taught distance, much of your time outside of class will be spent on self-directed, self-employed learning, including preparing for classes both following up afterwards. This will usually include, not is non limited to, how books and journal articles, undertaking research, working on coursework and assignments, and preparing for presentations both estimates. ... Birkbeck and Goldsmiths. In fact and English ... creative-writing-mfa-handbook.blogspot.com/). ... 2 Wash spa Creative Writing MA 3 Lancaster ...

Independent learning is absolutley vital to your success as a student. Everyone is different, and the research time required varies topic through topic, but, as a guide, expect to planning up to five hours of self-study for each hour for class.

Study skills and additional support

Birkbeck quote study also learning support to undergraduate and advanced students to help their succeed. Our Learning Development Service could help you in the following areas:

• academic skills (including planning your workload, research, writing, exam preparation and writing a dissertation)
• write English (including structure, punctuation and grammar)
• numerical abilities (basic mathematics and statistics).

Magnitude Permanent additionally Dyslexia Service can support you if you own additional learning needs resulting by a disability or from dyslexia.

Is Counselling Service can support you if you become struggling with emotional or psychological troubles during your studies.

Our Mental Health Consultancy Service can support you if you are experiencing short- or long-term mental health disorders during your surveys.

Assessment is an integral part for insert university studies and usually consists of a combination of coursework and examinations, although this will vary from course to course - on some of our courses, reviews is full-sized by coursework. The methods of assessment on the training are specified below under 'Methods of assessment on this course'. You want need to allow time at complete coursework and prepare for exams.

Where a track has unseen written examinations, are may be held termly, but, on the majority of our courses, exams are usually taken in the Sommerlicher term, at Allow at Monthly. Examination can be held at various days of the year as well. In most suits, exams are held during the per on a weekday - if you have morning commitments, you becoming need for make special for days attendance - but some trials are held in the evening. Audit timetables are published internet. Birkbeck Published Alumni Series continues by Nadim Safdar

Find out view about assessment at Birkbeck, including guidance on assessment, feedback and our judgment offences policy.

Approaches of assessment on this course

Four short creative pieces with critical essays (67%). A graduate (15,000 words) in one of the following genres: a novella, novel or collection of short fables, over a preface on 3000 words (33%).

Careers and viability

Graduates can pursue career paths in editing, instruction and writing vocation. Possible trades include:

• creative writer
• magazine or magazine press
• editorial assistant
• academic librarian
• English as a second language (ESOL) teacher
• information officer.

Birkbeck Creative Writing graduates include:

• Nicky Aguirre
• Laura Allsop
• Americans Anwar
• Iphgenia Baal
• Phoebe Blatton
• Mary Lynn Bracht
• Nicoles Burstein
• Tray Butler
• Melissa De Villiers
• Liz Fremantle
• Julie Allot
• Ayma Henderson
• Saly Hinchcliffe
• Heidi James
• Keith Jarrett
• Olya Knezevic
• Matthew Loukes
• Bob Melrose
• Mary O'Sullivan
• Fourwheeler Richards
• Nadim Safdar
• Karin Salvalaggio
• David Savill
• Stefanie Seddon
• Luke Tredget.

Ourselves offer a comprehensive careers service - Careers and Enterprise - your career partner during your time at Birkbeck and past. In every stage of your career traveller, we empower you at take ownership of your future, helped them to make the connection between your experience, professional and future ambitions.

How to apply

You apply immediate until Birkbeck for this course, by the online your link.

You willing need to prove your identity when her apply - read more about suitable forms of identification .

When to apply

You are strongly advised up apply now, into secure there are still slots on you chosen course and to give it enough total to complete the permissions process, to arrange funding and to enrol.

You don't need to complete your actual programme of study before you apply - Birkbeck can offering you a place that exists conditional for you results.

You will additionally receive information about subject-specific induction sessions override the summer.

Help furthermore advice with your claim

Take all the information you need about the apply, admission and enrolment process at Birkbeck.

In online personal statement tool will leaders him through every tread of writing the particular statement part is your application.

Apply for your course

Apply on your course using the apply buy button in the key information section .

• Creative Writing and Contemporary Degree (MA)

Course structure

Direction organization listing, course site and modules for original writers ma: 1 year full-time or 2 years part-time, on campus, starting october 2024.

You must complete syllabus worth a total of 180 credits, included out:

• two compulsory modules (30 credits each)
• two option function (30 loans each)
• a 15,000-word dissertation (60 credits).

Compulsory modules

• Creative Non-Fiction
• Writing and Reading Seminar

Option modules

• Contemporary Writing 2: Variety
• Introduction to Playwriting
• Introduction to Screenwriting
• Poetry Workshop
• Writing The Self
• Writing Workshop

MA Imaginative Writing Dissertation

• Dissertation MA Creative Writing

Running structure and curriculum required Creative Handwriting: Jan start MA: 2 years part-time, on campus, starting January 2025

I must complete modules worth a entire of 180 credits, consisting of:

• second compulsory modules (30 mortgages each)
• two option modules (30 achievement each)

Compulsory modular

• Print and Reading Seminar
• Zeitnah Text 2: Genre
• General to Screenwriting
• Poetry Workshops
• Script The Self

MA Creative Handwriting Thesis

• Dissertation MAL Creative Writing

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36 Views of Moscow Mountain: Teaching Travel Writing and Mindfulness in the Tradition of Hokusai and Thoreau

L'auteur américain Henry David Thoreau est un écrivain du voyage qui a rarement quitté sa ville natale de Concorde, Massachusetts, où il a vécu de 1817 à 1862. Son approche du "voyage" consiste à accorder une profonde attention à son environnement ordinaire et à voir le monde à partir de perspectives multiples, comme il l'explique avec subtilité dans Walden (1854). Inspiré par Thoreau et par la célèbre série de gravures du peintre d'estampes japonais Katsushika Hokusai, intitulée 36 vues du Mt. Fuji (1830-32), j'ai fait un cours sur "L'écriture thoreauvienne du voyage" à l'Université de l'Idaho, que j'appelle 36 vues des montagnes de Moscow: ou, Faire un grand voyage — l'esprit et le carnet ouvert — dans un petit lieu . Cet article explore la philosophie et les stratégies pédagogiques de ce cours, qui tente de partager avec les étudiants les vertus d'un regard neuf sur le monde, avec les yeux vraiment ouverts, avec le regard d'un voyageur, en "faisant un grand voyage" à Moscow, Idaho. Les étudiants affinent aussi leurs compétences d'écriture et apprennent les traditions littéraires et artistiques associées au voyage et au sens du lieu.

Index terms

Keywords: , designing a writing class to foster engagement.

1 The signs at the edge of town say, "Entering Moscow, Idaho. Population 25,060." This is a small hamlet in the midst of a sea of rolling hills, where farmers grow varieties of wheat, lentils, peas, and garbanzo beans, irrigated by natural rainfall. Although the town of Moscow has a somewhat cosmopolitan feel because of the presence of the University of Idaho (with its 13,000 students and a few thousand faculty and staff members), elegant restaurants, several bookstores and music stores, and a patchwork of artsy coffee shops on Main Street, the entire mini-metropolis has only about a dozen traffic lights and a single high school. As a professor of creative writing and the environmental humanities at the university, I have long been interested in finding ways to give special focuses to my writing and literature classes that will help my students think about the circumstances of their own lives and find not only academic meaning but personal significance in our subjects. I have recently taught graduate writing workshops on such themes as "The Body" and "Crisis," but when I was given the opportunity recently to teach an undergraduate writing class on Personal and Exploratory Writing, I decided to choose a focus that would bring me—and my students—back to one of the writers who has long been of central interest to me: Henry David Thoreau.

2 One of the courses I have routinely taught during the past six years is Environmental Writing, an undergraduate class that I offer as part of the university's Semester in the Wild Program, a unique undergraduate opportunity that sends a small group of students to study five courses (Ecology, Environmental History, Environmental Writing, Outdoor Leadership and Wilderness Survival, and Wilderness Management and Policy) at a remote research station located in the middle of the largest wilderness area (the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness) in the United States south of Alaska. In "Teaching with Wolves," a recent article about the Semester in the Wild Program, I explained that my goal in the Environmental Writing class is to help the students "synthesize their experience in the wilderness with the content of the various classes" and "to think ahead to their professional lives and their lives as engaged citizens, for which critical thinking and communication skills are so important" (325). A foundational text for the Environmental Writing class is a selection from Thoreau's personal journal, specifically the entries he made October 1-20, 1853, which I collected in the 1993 writing textbook Being in the World: An Environmental Reader for Writers . I ask the students in the Semester in the Wild Program to deeply immerse themselves in Thoreau's precise and colorful descriptions of the physical world that is immediately present to him and, in turn, to engage with their immediate encounters with the world in their wilderness location. Thoreau's entries read like this:

Oct. 4. The maples are reddening, and birches yellowing. The mouse-ear in the shade in the middle of the day, so hoary, looks as if the frost still lay on it. Well it wears the frost. Bumblebees are on the Aster undulates , and gnats are dancing in the air. Oct. 5. The howling of the wind about the house just before a storm to-night sounds extremely like a loon on the pond. How fit! Oct. 6 and 7. Windy. Elms bare. (372)

3 In thinking ahead to my class on Personal and Exploratory Writing, which would be offered on the main campus of the University of Idaho in the fall semester of 2018, I wanted to find a topic that would instill in my students the Thoreauvian spirit of visceral engagement with the world, engagement on the physical, emotional, and philosophical levels, while still allowing my students to remain in the city and live their regular lives as students. It occurred to me that part of what makes Thoreau's journal, which he maintained almost daily from 1837 (when he was twenty years old) to 1861 (just a year before his death), such a rich and elegant work is his sense of being a traveler, even when not traveling geographically.

Traveling a Good Deal in Moscow

I have traveled a good deal in Concord…. --Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854; 4)

4 For Thoreau, one did not need to travel a substantial physical distance in order to be a traveler, in order to bring a traveler's frame of mind to daily experience. His most famous book, Walden , is well known as an account of the author's ideas and daily experiments in simple living during the two years, two months, and two days (July 4, 1845, to September 6, 1847) he spent inhabiting a simple wooden house that he built on the shore of Walden Pond, a small lake to the west of Boston, Massachusetts. Walden Pond is not a remote location—it is not out in the wilderness. It is on the edge of a small village, much like Moscow, Idaho. The concept of "traveling a good deal in Concord" is a kind of philosophical and psychological riddle. What does it mean to travel extensively in such a small place? The answer to this question is meaningful not only to teachers hoping to design writing classes in the spirit of Thoreau but to all who are interested in travel as an experience and in the literary genre of travel writing.

5 Much of Walden is an exercise in deftly establishing a playful and intellectually challenging system of synonyms, an array of words—"economy," "deliberateness," "simplicity," "dawn," "awakening," "higher laws," etc.—that all add up to powerful probing of what it means to live a mindful and attentive life in the world. "Travel" serves as a key, if subtle, metaphor for the mindful life—it is a metaphor and also, in a sense, a clue: if we can achieve the traveler's perspective without going far afield, then we might accomplish a kind of enlightenment. Thoreau's interest in mindfulness becomes clear in chapter two of Walden , "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For," in which he writes, "Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me. To be awake is to be alive. I have never yet met a man who was quite awake. How could I have looked him in the face?" The latter question implies the author's feeling that he is himself merely evolving as an awakened individual, not yet fully awake, or mindful, in his efforts to live "a poetic or divine life" (90). Thoreau proceeds to assert that "We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn…. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor" (90). Just what this endeavor might be is not immediately spelled out in the text, but the author does quickly point out the value of focusing on only a few activities or ideas at a time, so as not to let our lives be "frittered away by detail." He writes: "Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; … and keep your accounts on your thumb nail" (91). The strong emphasis in the crucial second chapter of Walden is on the importance of waking up and living deliberately through a conscious effort to engage in particular activities that support such awakening. It occurs to me that "travel," or simply making one's way through town with the mindset of a traveler, could be one of these activities.

6 It is in the final chapter of the book, titled "Conclusion," that Thoreau makes clear the relationship between travel and living an attentive life. He begins the chapter by cataloguing the various physical locales throughout North America or around the world to which one might travel—Canada, Ohio, Colorado, and even Tierra del Fuego. But Thoreau states: "Our voyaging is only great-circle sailing, and the doctors prescribe for diseases of the skin merely. One hastens to Southern Africa to chase the giraffe; but surely that is not the game he would be after." What comes next is brief quotation from the seventeenth-century English poet William Habbington (but presented anonymously in Thoreau's text), which might be one of the most significant passages in the entire book:

Direct your eye sight inward, and you'll find A thousand regions in your mind Yet undiscovered. Travel them, and be Expert in home-cosmography. (320)

7 This admonition to travel the mysterious territory of one's own mind and master the strange cosmos of the self is actually a challenge to the reader—and probably to the author himself—to focus on self-reflection and small-scale, local movement as if such activities were akin to exploration on a grand, planetary scale. What is really at issue here is not the physical distance of one's journey, but the mental flexibility of one's approach to the world, one's ability to look at the world with a fresh, estranged point of view. Soon after his discussion of the virtues of interior travel, Thoreau explains why he left his simple home at Walden Pond after a few years of experimental living there, writing, "It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves" (323). In other words, no matter what we're doing in life, we can fall into a "beaten track" if we're not careful, thus failing to stay "awake."

8 As I thought about my writing class at the University of Idaho, I wondered how I might design a series of readings and writing exercises for university students that would somehow emulate the Thoreauvian objective of achieving ultra-mindfulness in a local environment. One of the greatest challenges in designing such a class is the fact that it took Thoreau himself many years to develop an attentiveness to his environment and his own emotional rhythms and an efficiency of expression that would enable him to describe such travel-without-travel, and I would have only sixteen weeks to achieve this with my own students. The first task, I decided, was to invite my students into the essential philosophical stance of the class, and I did this by asking my students to read the opening chapter of Walden ("Economy") in which he talks about traveling "a good deal" in his small New England village as well as the second chapter and the conclusion, which reveal the author's enthusiasm (some might even say obsession ) for trying to achieve an awakened condition and which, in the end, suggest that waking up to the meaning of one's life in the world might be best accomplished by attempting the paradoxical feat of becoming "expert in home-cosmography." As I stated it among the objectives for my course titled 36 Views of Moscow Mountain: Or, Traveling a Good Deal—with Open Minds and Notebooks—in a Small Place , one of our goals together (along with practicing nonfiction writing skills and learning about the genre of travel writing) would be to "Cultivate a ‘Thoreauvian' way of appreciating the subtleties of the ordinary world."

Windy. Elms Bare.

9 For me, the elegance and heightened sensitivity of Thoreau's engagement with place is most movingly exemplified in his journal, especially in the 1850s after he's mastered the art of observation and nuanced, efficient description of specific natural phenomena and environmental conditions. His early entries in the journal are abstract mini-essays on such topics as truth, beauty, and "The Poet," but over time the journal notations become so immersed in the direct experience of the more-than-human world, in daily sensory experiences, that the pronoun "I" even drops out of many of these records. Lawrence Buell aptly describes this Thoreauvian mode of expression as "self-relinquishment" (156) in his 1995 book The Environmental Imagination , suggesting such writing "question[s] the authority of the superintending consciousness. As such, it opens up the prospect of a thoroughgoing perceptual breakthrough, suggesting the possibility of a more ecocentric state of being than most of us have dreamed of" (144-45). By the time Thoreau wrote "Windy. Elms bare" (372) as his single entry for October 6 and 7, 1853, he had entered what we might call an "ecocentric zone of consciousness" in his work, attaining the ability to channel his complex perceptions of season change (including meteorology and botany and even his own emotional state) into brief, evocative prose.

10 I certainly do not expect my students to be able to do such writing after only a brief introduction to the course and to Thoreau's own methods of journal writing, but after laying the foundation of the Thoreauvian philosophy of nearby travel and explaining to my students what I call the "building blocks of the personal essay" (description, narration, and exposition), I ask them to engage in a preliminary journal-writing exercise that involves preparing five journal entries, each "a paragraph or two in length," that offer detailed physical descriptions of ordinary phenomena from their lives (plants, birds, buildings, street signs, people, food, etc.), emphasizing shape, color, movement or change, shadow, and sometimes sound, smell, taste, and/or touch. The goal of the journal entries, I tell the students, is to begin to get them thinking about close observation, vivid descriptive language, and the potential to give their later essays in the class an effective texture by balancing more abstract information and ideas with evocative descriptive passages and storytelling.

11 I am currently teaching this class, and I am writing this article in early September, as we are entering the fourth week of the semester. The students have just completed the journal-writing exercise and are now preparing to write the first of five brief essays on different aspects of Moscow that will eventually be braided together, as discrete sections of the longer piece, into a full-scale literary essay about Moscow, Idaho, from the perspective of a traveler. For the journal exercise, my students wrote some rather remarkable descriptive statements, which I think bodes well for their upcoming work. One student, Elizabeth Isakson, wrote stunning journal descriptions of a cup of coffee, her own feet, a lemon, a basil leaf, and a patch of grass. For instance, she wrote:

Steaming hot liquid poured into a mug. No cream, just black. Yet it appears the same brown as excretion. The texture tells another story with meniscus that fades from clear to gold and again brown. The smell is intoxicating for those who are addicted. Sweetness fills the nostrils; bitterness rushes over the tongue. The contrast somehow complements itself. Earthy undertones flower up, yet this beverage is much more satisfying than dirt. When the mug runs dry, specks of dark grounds remain swimming in the sunken meniscus. Steam no longer rises because energy has found a new home.

12 For the grassy lawn, she wrote:

Calico with shades of green, the grass is yellowing. Once vibrant, it's now speckled with straw. Sticking out are tall, seeding dandelions. Still some dips in the ground have maintained thick, soft patches of green. The light dances along falling down from the trees above, creating a stained-glass appearance made from various green shades. The individual blades are stiff enough to stand erect, but they will yield to even slight forces of wind or pressure. Made from several long strands seemingly fused together, some blades fray at the end, appearing brittle. But they do not simply break off; they hold fast to the blade to which they belong.

13 The point of this journal writing is for the students to look closely enough at ordinary reality to feel estranged from it, as if they have never before encountered (or attempted to describe) a cup of coffee or a field of grass—or a lemon or a basil leaf or their own body. Thus, the Thoreauvian objective of practicing home-cosmography begins to take shape. The familiar becomes exotic, note-worthy, and strangely beautiful, just as it often does for the geographical travel writer, whose adventures occur far away from where she or he normally lives. Travel, in a sense, is an antidote to complacency, to over-familiarity. But the premise of my class in Thoreauvian travel writing is that a slight shift of perspective can overcome the complacency we might naturally feel in our home surroundings. To accomplish this we need a certain degree of disorientation. This is the next challenge for our class.

The Blessing of Being Lost

14 Most of us take great pains to "get oriented" and "know where we're going," whether this is while running our daily errands or when thinking about the essential trajectories of our lives. We're often instructed by anxious parents to develop a sense of purpose and a sense of direction, if only for the sake of basic safety. But the traveler operates according to a somewhat different set of priorities, perhaps, elevating adventure and insight above basic comfort and security, at least to some degree. This certainly seems to be the case for the Thoreauvian traveler, or for Thoreau himself. In Walden , he writes:

…not until we are completely lost, or turned round,--for a man needs only be turned round once with his eyes shut in this world to be lost,--do we appreciate the vastness and strangeness of Nature. Every man has to learn the points of compass again as often as he awakes, whether from sleep or any abstraction. Not till we are lost, in other words, not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations. (171)

15 I could explicate this passage at length, but that's not really my purpose here. I read this as a celebration of salutary disorientation, of the potential to be lost in such a way as to deepen one's ability to pay attention to oneself and one's surroundings, natural and otherwise. If travel is to a great degree an experience uniquely capable of triggering attentiveness to our own physical and psychological condition, to other cultures and the minds and needs of other people, and to a million small details of our environment that we might take for granted at home but that accrue special significance when we're away, I would argue that much of this attentiveness is owed to the sense of being lost, even the fear of being lost, that often happens when we leave our normal habitat.

16 So in my class I try to help my students "get lost" in a positive way. Here in Moscow, the major local landmark is a place called Moscow Mountain, a forested ridge of land just north of town, running approximately twenty kilometers to the east of the city. Moscow "Mountain" does not really have a single, distinctive peak like a typical mountain—it is, as I say, more of a ridge than a pinnacle. When I began contemplating this class on Thoreauvian travel writing, the central concepts I had in mind were Thoreau's notion of traveling a good deal in Concord and also the idea of looking at a specific place from many different angles. The latter idea is not only Thoreauvian, but perhaps well captured in the eighteen-century Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai's series of woodblock prints known as 36 Views of Mt. Fuji , which offers an array of different angles on the mountain itself and on other landscape features (lakes, the sea, forests, clouds, trees, wind) and human behavior which is represented in many of the prints, often with Mt. Fuji in the distant background or off to the side. In fact, I imagine Hokusai's approach to representing Mt. Fuji as so important to the concept of this travel writing class that I call the class "36 Views of Moscow Mountain," symbolizing the multiple approaches I'll be asking my students to take in contemplating and describing not only Moscow Mountain itself, but the culture and landscape and the essential experience of Moscow the town. The idea of using Hokusai's series of prints as a focal point of this class came to me, in part, from reading American studies scholar Cathy Davidson's 36 Views of Mount Fuji: On Finding Myself in Japan , a memoir that offers sixteen short essays about different facets of her life as a visiting professor in that island nation.

17 The first of five brief essays my students will prepare for the class is what I'm calling a "Moscow Mountain descriptive essay," building upon the small descriptive journal entries they've written recently. In this case, though, I am asking the students to describe the shapes and colors of the Moscow Mountain ridge, while also telling a brief story or two about their observations of the mountain, either by visiting the mountain itself to take a walk or a bike ride or by explaining how they glimpse portions of the darkly forested ridge in the distance while walking around the University of Idaho campus or doing things in town. In preparation for the Moscow Mountain essays, we read several essays or book chapters that emphasize "organizing principles" in writing, often the use of particular landscape features, such as trees or mountains, as a literary focal point. For instance, in David Gessner's "Soaring with Castro," from his 2007 book Soaring with Fidel: An Osprey Odyssey from Cape Cod to Cuba and Beyond , he not only refers to La Gran Piedra (a small mountain in southeastern Cuba) as a narrative focal point, but to the osprey, or fish eagle, itself and its migratory journey as an organizing principle for his literary project (203). Likewise, in his essay "I Climb a Tree and Become Dissatisfied with My Lot," Chicago author Leonard Dubkin writes about his decision, as a newly fired journalist, to climb up a tree in Chicago's Lincoln Park to observe and listen to the birds that gather in the green branches in the evening, despite the fact that most adults would consider this a strange and inappropriate activity. We also looked at several of Hokusai's woodblock prints and analyzed these together in class, trying to determine how the mountain served as an organizing principle for each print or whether there were other key features of the prints—clouds, ocean waves, hats and pieces of paper floating in the wind, humans bent over in labor—that dominate the images, with Fuji looking on in the distance.

18 I asked my students to think of Hokusai's representations of Mt. Fuji as aesthetic models, or metaphors, for what they might try to do in their brief (2-3 pages) literary essays about Moscow Mountain. What I soon discovered was that many of my students, even students who have spent their entire lives in Moscow, either were not aware of Moscow Mountain at all or had never actually set foot on the mountain. So we spent half an hour during one class session, walking to a vantage point on the university campus, where I could point out where the mountain is and we could discuss how one might begin to write about such a landscape feature in a literary essay. Although I had thought of the essay describing the mountain as a way of encouraging the students to think about a familiar landscape as an orienting device, I quickly learned that this will be a rather challenging exercise for many of the students, as it will force them to think about an object or a place that is easily visible during their ordinary lives, but that they typically ignore. Paying attention to the mountain, the ridge, will compel them to reorient themselves in this city and think about a background landscape feature that they've been taking for granted until now. I think of this as an act of disorientation or being lost—a process of rethinking their own presence in this town that has a nearby mountain that most of them seldom think about. I believe Thoreau would consider this a good, healthy experience, a way of being present anew in a familiar place.

36 Views—Or, When You Invert Your Head

19 Another key aspect of Hokusai's visual project and Thoreau's literary project is the idea of changing perspective. One can view Mt. Fuji from 36 different points of views, or from thousands of different perspectives, and it is never quite the same place—every perspective is original, fresh, mind-expanding. The impulse to shift perspective in pursuit of mindfulness is also ever-present in Thoreau's work, particularly in his personal journal and in Walden . This idea is particularly evident, to me, in the chapter of Walden titled "The Ponds," where he writes:

Standing on the smooth sandy beach at the east end of the pond, in a calm September afternoon, when a slight haze makes the opposite shore line indistinct, I have seen whence came the expression, "the glassy surface of a lake." When you invert your head, it looks like a thread of finest gossamer stretched across the valley, and gleaming against the distinct pine woods, separating one stratum of the atmosphere from another. (186)

20 Elsewhere in the chapter, Thoreau describes the view of the pond from the top of nearby hills and the shapes and colors of pebbles in the water when viewed from close up. He chances physical perspective again and again throughout the chapter, but it is in the act of looking upside down, actually suggesting that one might invert one's head, that he most vividly conveys the idea of looking at the world in different ways in order to be lost and awakened, just as the traveler to a distant land might feel lost and invigorated by such exposure to an unknown place.

21 After asking students to write their first essay about Moscow Mountain, I give them four additional short essays to write, each two to four pages long. We read short examples of place-based essays, some of them explicitly related to travel, and then the students work on their own essays on similar topics. The second short essay is about food—I call this the "Moscow Meal" essay. We read the final chapter of Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma (2006), "The Perfect Meal," and Anthony Bourdain's chapter "Where Cooks Come From" in the book A Cook's Tour (2001) are two of the works we study in preparation for the food essay. The three remaining short essays including a "Moscow People" essay (exploring local characters are important facets of the place), a more philosophical essay about "the concept of Moscow," and a final "Moscow Encounter" essay that tells the story of a dramatic moment of interaction with a person, an animal, a memorable thing to eat or drink, a sunset, or something else. Along the way, we read the work of Wendell Berry, Joan Didion, Barbara Kingsolver, Kim Stafford, Paul Theroux, and other authors. Before each small essay is due, we spend a class session holding small-group workshops, allowing the students to discuss their essays-in-progress with each other and share portions of their manuscripts. The idea is that they will learn about writing even by talking with each other about their essays. In addition to writing about Moscow from various angles, they will learn about additional points of view by considering the angles of insight developed by their fellow students. All of this is the writerly equivalent of "inverting [their] heads."

Beneath the Smooth Skin of Place

22 Aside from Thoreau's writing and Hokusai's images, perhaps the most important writer to provide inspiration for this class is Indiana-based essayist Scott Russell Sanders. Shortly after introducing the students to Thoreau's key ideas in Walden and to the richness of his descriptive writing in the journal, I ask them to read his essay "Buckeye," which first appeared in Sanders's Writing from the Center (1995). "Buckeye" demonstrates the elegant braiding together of descriptive, narrative, and expository/reflective prose, and it also offers a strong argument about the importance of creating literature and art about place—what he refers to as "shared lore" (5)—as a way of articulating the meaning of a place and potentially saving places that would otherwise be exploited for resources, flooded behind dams, or otherwise neglected or damaged. The essay uses many of the essential literary devices, ranging from dialogue to narrative scenes, that I hope my students will practice in their own essays, while also offering a vivid argument in support of the kind of place-based writing the students are working on.

23 Another vital aspect of our work together in this class is the effort to capture the wonderful idiosyncrasies of this place, akin to the idiosyncrasies of any place that we examine closely enough to reveal its unique personality. Sanders's essay "Beneath the Smooth Skin of America," which we study together in Week 9 of the course, addresses this topic poignantly. The author challenges readers to learn the "durable realities" of the places where they live, the details of "watershed, biome, habitat, food-chain, climate, topography, ecosystem and the areas defined by these natural features they call bioregions" (17). "The earth," he writes, "needs fewer tourists and more inhabitants" (16). By Week 9 of the semester, the students have written about Moscow Mountain, about local food, and about local characters, and they are ready at this point to reflect on some of the more philosophical dimensions of living in a small academic village surrounded by farmland and beyond that surrounded by the Cascade mountain range to the West and the Rockies to the East. "We need a richer vocabulary of place" (18), urges Sanders. By this point in the semester, by reading various examples of place-based writing and by practicing their own powers of observation and expression, my students will, I hope, have developed a somewhat richer vocabulary to describe their own experiences in this specific place, a place they've been trying to explore with "open minds and notebooks." Sanders argues that

if we pay attention, we begin to notice patterns in the local landscape. Perceiving those patterns, acquiring names and theories and stories for them, we cease to be tourists and become inhabitants. The bioregional consciousness I am talking about means bearing your place in mind, keeping track of its condition and needs, committing yourself to its care. (18)

24 Many of my students will spend only four or five years in Moscow, long enough to earn a degree before moving back to their hometowns or journeying out into the world in pursuit of jobs or further education. Moscow will be a waystation for some of these student writers, not a permanent home. Yet I am hoping that this semester-long experiment in Thoreauvian attentiveness and place-based writing will infect these young people with both the bioregional consciousness Sanders describes and a broader fascination with place, including the cultural (yes, the human ) dimensions of this and any other place. I feel such a mindfulness will enrich the lives of my students, whether they remain here or move to any other location on the planet or many such locations in succession.

25 Toward the end of "Beneath the Smooth Skin of America," Sanders tells the story of encountering a father with two young daughters near a city park in Bloomington, Indiana, where he lives. Sanders is "grazing" on wild mulberries from a neighborhood tree, and the girls are keen to join him in savoring the local fruit. But their father pulls them away, stating, "Thank you very much, but we never eat anything that grows wild. Never ever." To this Sanders responds: "If you hold by that rule, you will not get sick from eating poison berries, but neither will you be nourished from eating sweet ones. Why not learn to distinguish one from the other? Why feed belly and mind only from packages?" (19-20). By looking at Moscow Mountain—and at Moscow, Idaho, more broadly—from numerous points of view, my students, I hope, will nourish their own bellies and minds with the wild fruit and ideas of this place. I say this while chewing a tart, juicy, and, yes, slightly sweet plum that I pulled from a feral tree in my own Moscow neighborhood yesterday, an emblem of engagement, of being here.

Bibliography

BUELL, Lawrence, The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing, and the Formation of American Culture , Harvard University Press, 1995.

DAVIDSON, Cathy, 36 Views of Mount Fuji: On Finding Myself in Japan , Duke University Press, 2006.

DUBKIN, Leonard, "I Climb a Tree and Become Dissatisfied with My Lot." Enchanted Streets: The Unlikely Adventures of an Urban Nature Lover , Little, Brown and Company, 1947, 34-42.

GESSNER, David, Soaring with Fidel: An Osprey Odyssey from Cape Cod to Cuba and Beyond , Beacon, 2007.

ISAKSON, Elizabeth, "Journals." Assignment for 36 Views of Moscow Mountain (English 208), University of Idaho, Fall 2018.

SANDERS, Scott Russell, "Buckeye" and "Beneath the Smooth Skin of America." Writing from the Center , Indiana University Press, 1995, pp. 1-8, 9-21.

SLOVIC, Scott, "Teaching with Wolves", Western American Literature 52.3 (Fall 2017): 323-31.

THOREAU, Henry David, "October 1-20, 1853", Being in the World: An Environmental Reader for Writers , edited by Scott H. Slovic and Terrell F. Dixon, Macmillan, 1993, 371-75.

THOREAU, Henry David, Walden . 1854. Princeton University Press, 1971.

Bibliographical reference

Scott Slovic , “ 36 Views of Moscow Mountain: Teaching Travel Writing and Mindfulness in the Tradition of Hokusai and Thoreau ” ,  Caliban , 59 | 2018, 41-54.

Electronic reference

Scott Slovic , “ 36 Views of Moscow Mountain: Teaching Travel Writing and Mindfulness in the Tradition of Hokusai and Thoreau ” ,  Caliban [Online], 59 | 2018, Online since 01 June 2018 , connection on 29 April 2024 . URL : http://journals.openedition.org/caliban/3688; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/caliban.3688

About the author

Scott slovic.

University of Idaho Scott Slovic is University Distinguished Professor of Environmental Humanities at the University of Idaho, USA. The author and editor of many books and articles, he edited the journal ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment from 1995 to 2020. His latest coedited book is The Routledge Handbook of Ecocriticism and Environmental Communication  (2019).

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• 62 | 2019 Female Suffrage in British Art, Literature and History
• 61 | 2019 Land’s Furrows and Sorrows in Anglophone Countries
• 60 | 2018 The Life of Forgetting in Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century British Literature
• 59 | 2018 Anglophone Travel and Exploration Writing: Meetings Between the Human and Nonhuman
• 58 | 2017 The Mediterranean and its Hinterlands
• 57 | 2017 The Animal Question in Alice Munro's Stories
• 56 | 2016 Disappearances - American literature and arts
• 55 | 2016 Sharing the Planet
• 54 | 2015 Forms of Diplomacy (16 th -21 st century)
• 53 | 2015 Representing World War One: Art’s Response to War
• 52 | 2014 Caliban and his transmutations

Anglophonia/Caliban

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School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication

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Creative Arts, Culture and Communication

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Study creative writing

If you're serious about developing your writing, Birkbeck gives you the chance to learn from the UK's leading writers, playwrights and screewriters.

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If you are fascinated by literature, arts and how to contextualise them in a cultural and political landscape, Birkbeck offers degree programmes that will focus your interests and develop your critical thinking.

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Arts Week 2024

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Creative Writing at Birkbeck is internationally renowned for its practice-led research, impact and innovation. Find out more.

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Our work bridges creative writing, cultural history, literary studies and theatre studies.

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See how we research issues related to language teaching and learning, identity, migration, and the neurological and psychological basis of language and thought.

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Our researchers investigate theatre and performance from the contemporary to Renaissance periods, and contemporary arts management practices and policies.

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Over 1200 postgraduate students set to graduate next week

Birkbeck Arts Week returns to Bloomsbury with a rich tapestry of free events

Learn to live more sustainably at inaugural Birkbeck Climate Festival – 18 to 22 March

Civil service fast stream graduate development programme – fda union public sector mentoring and development scheme (psdms) with birbeck university.

2 May 2024 16:00 — 17:00

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Yoga for the Arts: Catch Your Breath

7 May 2024 15:30 — 17:00

Birkbeck 43 Gordon Square

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Making the move from Argentina to the UK

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• A Literary Tour Of Moscow

A Literary Tour of Moscow

It’s hard to count the exact number of great Russian writers who showed their love for Moscow. The city has attracted and prompted stories for a long time now, inspiring many to express their writing talent. Thus, Moscow’s literary sights are fully deserving of our attention, and this guide gladly presents you six of them, from museums to apartments.

1. nikolay gogol museum.

Library, Museum

2. The State Museum of Mayakovsky

3. Turgenev's Family House

5. The Apartment of Dostoevsky

Building, Memorial, Museum

6. The Mikhail Bulgakov Museum

Since you are here, we would like to share our vision for the future of travel - and the direction Culture Trip is moving in.

Culture Trip launched in 2011 with a simple yet passionate mission: to inspire people to go beyond their boundaries and experience what makes a place, its people and its culture special and meaningful — and this is still in our DNA today. We are proud that, for more than a decade, millions like you have trusted our award-winning recommendations by people who deeply understand what makes certain places and communities so special.

Increasingly we believe the world needs more meaningful, real-life connections between curious travellers keen to explore the world in a more responsible way. That is why we have intensively curated a collection of premium small-group trips as an invitation to meet and connect with new, like-minded people for once-in-a-lifetime experiences in three categories: Culture Trips, Rail Trips and Private Trips. Our Trips are suitable for both solo travelers, couples and friends who want to explore the world together.

Culture Trips are deeply immersive 5 to 16 days itineraries, that combine authentic local experiences, exciting activities and 4-5* accommodation to look forward to at the end of each day. Our Rail Trips are our most planet-friendly itineraries that invite you to take the scenic route, relax whilst getting under the skin of a destination. Our Private Trips are fully tailored itineraries, curated by our Travel Experts specifically for you, your friends or your family.

We know that many of you worry about the environmental impact of travel and are looking for ways of expanding horizons in ways that do minimal harm - and may even bring benefits. We are committed to go as far as possible in curating our trips with care for the planet. That is why all of our trips are flightless in destination, fully carbon offset - and we have ambitious plans to be net zero in the very near future.

See & Do

Russia's most remote holiday destinations.

A Guide to Cautionary Russian Proverbs and What They Mean

Unusual Facts About the Soviet Union

Incredible Photos From the Longest Bike Race in the World

Restaurants

The best halal restaurants in kaliningrad.

Guides & Tips

A 48 hour guide to astrakhan, russia.

A Soviet Pilot Went Missing in Afghanistan and Was Found 30 Years Later

The Soviet Union’s Best Heart-Throbs and Pinups

The Mystery Behind Russia's Buddhist "Miracle"

Zhenotdel: The Soviet Union's Feminist Movement

Russian Last Names and Their Meanings

Food & Drink

The best halal restaurants in kazan, culture trip spring sale, save up to $1,100 on our unique small-group trips limited spots..

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