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Comment by Mary Mageau 10 hours ago

Hi Adrienne,

I'm experiencing the same difficulty. People do send comments and I'm surprised to find them only when I enter the group myself. Few if any find their way to me directly via email. It seems that this group is just hiccupping along in a very sporadic way.

Comment by Adrienne Ross Scanlan 19 hours ago

Are other people not receiving any posts from She Writes Nature Writing? I receive alerts from other SW groups whenever someone posts to the Comment Wall, but I have not received alerts about any May or June posts on the Nature Writing Group wall. Looks like I have lots of interesting posts to review, but it's frustrating to be so disconnected from this group. Is this just my problem or several people's problem? What can I or we do about this?

Comment by Shannon Huffman Polson on May 28, 2013 at 9:55am

following up on how to engage best here, I'm doing to do a series of blog posts on influences on North of Hope- many are "nature writing" related beginning with the first, the Australian landscape in A Road From Coorain by Jill Ker Conway. My thoughts here: http://aborderlife.com/a-border-life/

Comment by Amanda Katherine Jaros on May 26, 2013 at 12:50pm

Thanks Mary- It looks like a nice site.  I'll have to read more there :)

Happy Memorial Day all!

Comment by Mary Mageau on May 24, 2013 at 11:19pm

Hi Amanda,

Naturewriting.com is an online magazine only, but one that allows you to read essays and poetry about its general topic. I always enjoy reading about what others are perceiving and what aspects of nature writing interest them.  Some of the pieces are very ordinary and others are very good. The only feedback I've received has been from Ron Harton, its editor.

If you want an interactive group that offers criticism and helpful advice to one another,  you may need a different group that is set up with this special function. From my own perspective, I've been through so many writers groups and online groups that offer suggestions re one another's works in progress, that I'm taking a btreak right now from this so I can just write. I do work closely with an editor and proofreader when I have a large piece I want to offer for publication, but other than that  ... I am simply writing.  

Comment by Amanda Katherine Jaros on May 24, 2013 at 8:54am

Mary- Can you tell me more about naturewriting.com?  I have checked out the site.  Is is a place where you can just share any work you have, and get feedback from others? (I don't see comments there however.)  rather than an edited magazine?  Just wondering what else you can share about it, or your experience putting your work there?  Thanks!

Comment by Amanda Katherine Jaros on May 24, 2013 at 8:46am

A few, or more dedicated chatters is great!  I am always interested in connecting to others who are in the same or similar boat as mine :)

Anyway, I think what you say about needing another layer of meaning is so very true in nature writing.  I just read this piece from a 2003 emerging women writers nature compilation, and it was beautiful and so descriptive of the vermont forests, and all very praising of the wilderness.  But it was pretty boring too.  There was not anything more too it than that.  Look, isn't nature great?  These days I think for some people that is enough, but for most, our attention in constantly drawn away from the natural world and into technology.  All the flashy, shiny, fun screens we have now are SO compelling for our species.  If we are going to write about nature, I think we have to write something that has another layer of meaning, something that stirs the soul, something that touches on the universal aspect of how we as humans fit into our natural world.  I think nature writing is about how humans relate to nature, place, wildlife, wilderness, in whatever form it takes.  Finding the place we fit in is always key.

Comment by Mary Mageau on May 23, 2013 at 10:04pm

Hello All,

Shannon, thanks for your latest comment re the requirement for content within the nature writing genre. What we  don't want are more descriptions of shimmering sunsets etc. I'm paraphrasing Mark Tredinnick below, an Australian nature writer, who offers the following suggestion. He views nature writing as literature of place.

The nature writer looks at and then listens to the world - to some or one of its interesting places, looking for words to shape the stories embedded in them -- stories of those places, including stories of the people who have claimed them and whose lives somehow articulate them.

In Tim Winton's book, Land's Edge - a Coastal Memoir, he not only describes the places he visited with his family as a child, but adds anecdotal interest -- short, quirky and humourous stories of people. These introduce aspects of memoir into his nature writing, and it works very well.

 

Comment by Shannon Huffman Polson on May 23, 2013 at 11:16am

Yes- I am VERY behind on email Amanda but one coming back to you soon!

And thank you for that- I haven't been sure how these groups might work best! I suppose it depends on what people are looking for but it takes everyone (or a few) committed folks anyway!
 I am reworking a piece for an online magazine right now that definitely qualifies as nature writing, but interestingly have been really inspired by the place specific but very much NOT nature writing of Andre Aciman, specifically his essays under the title "Alibis," helping challenge me to find the next layer of meaning. So Aciman might be writing about visiting a European city, but he is really talking about displacement, for example. It seems to me that's pretty key, and I can get overly excited about nature writing because I love wilderness, but unless it has those other levels of meaning it's pretty thin. 

Any thoughts on that? :-)

Comment by Amanda Katherine Jaros on May 23, 2013 at 10:58am

Shannon, I think I am just looking for more connection/discussion/support/info sharing with other women nature writers.  It seems hard to find and get to know them!  I like this group, but it kind of fell off my radar for a while.  It seems like a lot of people don't comment or chat here much.  But I would hate for it to turn into something like some of the other groups on this site- all links to their own sites and shameless self promotion!  Ick!  I want to get to know others who are doing what I am trying to do. 

I sent you an email a few days ago- to an email address you posted elsewhere on this site... did you get it?  :)

Thanks for the question on what people are looking for!

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