Workshop: Sensory Awareness, Story-Seeking and Writing

How can we write about something both visually and sonically? What techniques can writers employ to effectively describe sounds as abstract as sheep bleating or the vocalizations of a whale at sea?

In this writing workshop, science writer David George Haskell will lead a variety of playful exercises in listening and other forms of sensory awareness to introduce ways of enriching our writing and expanding our sensory capacities that help us with our writing. Participants will excavate narratives and connections in their work, and learn to successfully employ them across their creative, academic or scientific writing. This workshop is open to people of all abilities and interests, and especially anyone experimenting with writing about nature, place and science.

To get a sense of the sonic worlds that inform David George Haskell’s work, visitors are invited to explore a collection of sounds connected to his book "Sounds Wild and Broken."

About the speaker

An adjunct professor of environmental sciences at Emory University, David George Haskell is a writer and biologist acclaimed for his lyrical explorations of the living world. His most recent book, "How Flowers Made Our World," explores the creative powers of flowering plants. Haskell is a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction, in 2012 for "The Forest Unseen" and in 2022 for "Sounds Wild and Broken." His 2017 book, "The Songs of Trees" won the John Burroughs Medal. His scientific research on animal ecology, evolution and conservation has been sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the World Wildlife Fund, among others. He has served on the boards and advisory committees of local and national land conservation groups.

This event is co-sponsored by The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory, School of International Letters and Cultures, and the Department of English.

For a full listing of Humanities Institute events, visit our events page.