Environmental Writing
CENTER for ENVIRONMENTAL ARTS AND HUMANITIES

Environmental Writing majors know that "a word after a word after a word is power", as the poet Margaret Atwood put it. They are impatient with pedestrian writing because it shelters stale ideas. They can feel the world of nature offering itself to their imagination, and they want to meet it head-on and put it down in words. They want to explore modes of self-expression, but they also want to master techniques needed to advocate for the environment. They recognize how much of nature needs saving, but they firmly believe that good, authentic writing can reach into the hearts of readers and change the world.

Is this you? Are you articulate and passionate about environmental justice? Do you live for those moments when your words flame off the page and catch fire in the reader's mind? Do you gravitate towards writers and artists who hold a vision of what could be? Do you stay up late with like-minded friends collaborating on wild new creations? Polishing something you've written over and over until it glows? Can you imagine writing a children's book that gives them a lifetime of nature images? A concise, hardhitting expose of an environmental problem? A poem that goes right to the heart of a seashore, a bird, a dump?

What you'll study
Your program combines a broad-based liberal arts education with focused training in creative writing, journalism and writing for social or biological sciences. It emphasizes experiential learning, writing as a process, and developing a unique authorial voice as the tools you'll need for a variety of careers in the environment.

The major is recognized by the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment as a leading program in the filed.

Your studies will include:

• Advocacy and the Environment
• American Literature
• Approaches to Literature
• British Literature
• Creative Writing
• Environmental Journalism
• Ethics
• Introduction to Environmental Writing
• Philosophy and Literature

Complete Program Requirements

What you'll do
Your projects may include:

• Writing for Hawk and Handsaw, Unity's nationally noted journal of environmental sustainability
• Articles for The North Woods Sporting Journal

Who will teach you

Kate Miles Associate Professor of Environmental Writing  Author ..we believe that all writers possess the potential to change the world through art, advocacy and the sharing of ideas. We feel confident that our Environmental Writing program offers students the skills and experiences needed to make a difference.		Diane Murphy Professor of Humanities

Where your major can take you
Environmental Writing majors enter these kinds of careers:

    Communication Directors for Nonprofit Organizations
    Creative Writers
    Editors
    English Teachers
    Environmental Advocates
    Environmental Reporters
    Lobbyists
    Technical Writers
    Web Designers

Environmental Writing majors pursuing graduate work have enrolled in:

    Education
    English
    Fine Arts
    Law
    Women's Studies  

Explore a Career in Environmental Writing