About The Program

Check out Chip Blake’s paid recorded program, What Birds Can Teach Us: A Seven-Part Online Master Class in Nature Writing, and his articles, A Father and Son Go Fishing and Looking at the Natural World.

Chip and your classmates will give feedback and encouragement on your writing, such that we will become stronger, more confident writers. Our goal will be that each participant comes away from the class with a finished piece of writing — as well as new insights about yourself and your own life.

Birds are all around us — we don’t have to look far to find one that has a story to tell. They are potent indicators of what’s happening to the planet. They are symbols of freedom, fragility, courage, endurance, hope, and spirit. Learning and writing about them can teach us a great deal about ourselves and how we navigate the world.

As part of the class we’ll read and discuss exemplary writing about birds from accomplished writers, work in small groups, take turns reading aloud from our own writing, work with prompts, give each other feedback and encouragement that will make us stronger, more confident writers, and — for those who want to — talk about getting our work published.

As part of the class we’ll get out in the woods around Rowe to see what kinds of birds we can find, and practice some basic identification skills.

This is not a craft class, but for a class that is not a craft class we will spend a good amount of time talking about craft. Although this class focuses on writing about birds, anyone whose writing is devoted to other dimensions of the natural world is welcome.

Meet the Presenter