F128.
Widening the Lens: Diversifying Nature Writing
Friday, March 25, 2022
9:00 am to 10:15 am
“Nature writing” has long been associated with privileged people enjoying pristine environments, devoid of human influence, in ways that disregard more complicated realities of race, class, access, colonialism, and more. A diverse group of panelists who publish and teach nature writing will discuss how the old concepts of nature and nature writing have been replaced in recent years with a broader range of writers, experiences, and ideas.
Participants
Kim O'Connell is a writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, National Parks Traveler, and Undark. She teaches in the graduate science writing program at Johns Hopkins and has been an artist in residence at Shenandoah and Acadia National Parks.
Ashia Ajani is a Black queer environmental storyteller and educator hailing from Denver, Colorado (unceded territory of the Cheyenne, Ute, Arapahoe, and Comanche peoples). They have been published in Frontier Poetry, World Literature Today, Them.us, and Sierra magazine, among others.
Paola Rosa-Aquino is a Brooklyn-based journalist covering science and environmental justice. Her writing has appeared in Popular Science, The New Republic, and Salon. She is part of the steering committee of the Uproot Project, a growing network for journalists of color who cover the environment.
Nancy Lord is the author of environmentally related books including the nonfiction Early Warming and Beluga Days and, most recently, pH: A Novel. She edited the anthology Made of Salmon. She teaches nature and science writing for Johns Hopkins University and is a former Alaska Writer Laureate.
