The 2014 AWP Conference and Bookfair was held in Seattle, WA, from February 27 - March 1, 2014. Among the panel discussions, one feature two of my favorites talking about "writing nature," Robert Hass and Gary Snyder. They were joined by poet and non-fiction author Eva Saulitis, with Peggy Shumaker acting as host and moderator.

Robert Hass, Eva Saulitis, & Gary Snyder: Writing Nature

Event Date: 02.28.14



Robert Hass, Eva Saulitis, & Gary Snyder: Writing Nature from Association of Writers and Writing Programs on FORA.tv
Author and marine biologist Eva Saulitis joins legendary poets Robert Hass and Gary Snyder for a reading followed by a conversation, moderated by Peggy Shumaker, about the task of writing about nature in a culture that often prizes easily commodifiable academic achievement over messier ways of knowing: the lyric, the spiritual, the sublime.

Bio

Robert L. Hass (born March 1, 1941, San Francisco) is an American poet. He served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1995 to 1997. He won the 2007 National Book Award and shared the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for the collection Time and Materials: Poems 1997-2005.

Eva Saulitis, a writer and marine biologist, has studied the killer whales of Prince William Sound, Alaska for twenty-five years. She is the author of a book of essays Leaving Resurrection: Chronicles of a Whale Scientist, the poetry collection Many Ways to Say It, and Into Great Silence: A Memoir of Discovery and Loss among Vanishing Orcas. She has received fellowships from the Rasmuson Foundation and the Alaska State Council on the Arts and is an associate professor in the University of Alaska Low-Residency MFA program.

Peggy Shumaker's newest book is Toucan Nest: Poems of Costa Rica. Her memoir is Just Breathe Normally. A former Alaska State Writer Laureate, she edits the Alaska Literary Series and Boreal Books, publishing literature and fine art from Alaska. She teaches at the Rainier Writing Workshop and the MFA at Pacific Lutheran University.

Gary Snyder, best known as a poet, is an essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. He is the author of over twenty books, including Turtle Island, winner of the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He served for many years as a faculty member at the University of California, Davis and has been a translator of ancient Chinese and modern Japanese literary texts into English.

Related Links

• About Eva Saulitis
• Robert Hass at The Poetry Foundation
• About Peggy Shumaker
• Gary Snyder at The Poetry Foundation
• About AWP Conference & Bookfair