9th Annual Environmental Writing: Inspire, Observe, Inhabit
Burke Museum – Sat., Apr. 29, 2017 – 9 am – 5 pm
$100 registration fee; 10% discount for Burke Members

Made possible by the Rebecca S. and Robert M. Benton Endowed Fund

Sign up soon, class space is limited; lunch provided.
Scholarships available with valid student ID; request an application

Join award-winning authors Kathleen Alcalá, Lynda Mapes, and Stokley Towles as they lead classroom and field-based sessions. They bring years of experience as writers, researchers, and teachers. Each is an attentive observer who weaves together history, science, and field time into well-crafted, thought-provoking writing about the natural and cultural world.

We in the Pacific Northwest are fortunate to live not only in a place where nature abounds but also to live in place where place-based writers abound. Whether it is exploring the life of birds, considering the myriad ways of urban wilds, or pursuing breaking news, these authors will inspire us to continue to write about the environment in all its guises.

For more information, please email burked@uw.edu, call (206) 543-5591, or go to http://www.burkemuseum.org/calendar.

Kathleen Alcalá is the author of The Deepest Roots: Finding Food and Community on a Pacific Northwest Island, from the University of Washington Press, as well as five previous books on family, history, and our relationship to the land of Mexico and the United States. Her work has been awarded the Western States Book Award, two Artist Trust Fellowships, the Governors Writers Award, and others. For more information, visit www.kathleenalcala.com

Lynda Mapes is a reporter at the Seattle Times, where she specializes in coverage of native cultures, natural history and the environment. She has written three previous books, including Elwha: A River Reborn about the largest dam removal project. Fellowships in 2013-2015 allowed her to research and write her next book, Witness Tree: Seasons of Change with a Century-Old Oak, due out from Bloomsbury Publishing in April, 2017. For more information, visit www.lyndavmapes.com

For fifteen years Stokley Towles has explored municipal systems, such as the police, a water utility, sewers, and bus drivers. He takes up residency within the system, looks closely at its environment, and interviews the people who work there to learn about their work and interactions with the public. He then gathers this research into stories that are performed for the public at conventions, art spaces and construction trailers . For more information, visit www.stokleytowles.com

David B. Williams
Education Assistant
Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture