One of the finest Nature Writers I have encountered so far, is Scottish Kathleen Jamie. I started getting more and more interested in this field of writing, as I – to my surprise – discovered there being very much nature in my own writing. But for this genre of writing to be interesting, as I read it, it has to be sprinkled with – or bathed in – poetry. I’m not talking about adding a line of poetry here & there, but about writing in a poetic tone, just as Jamie does.
People sometimes ask ‘can you really teach creative writing?’ but I think the question is wrongly put. Better to ask ‘can you learn to be a writer’? The answer is obviously yes. I did, and I’m learning still.
If you interested in how she works (it works?), you should have a look here: For every book, we have to make a new self –
So beginning a new work is not a matter of finding a topic to write “about”. First of all but you’ve to spend time – years! – frequenting the scrapyard or the sewing box, cobbling together a new self, then letting it find its way.
Just read it, sigrun. Thank you so much because it spoke right to me.
Jamie’s writing is so powerful. I’ve yet to get to her latest.
Sigrun, do you know the work of Arne Næss?
Arne Næss: Yes, just a little bit, he is kind of a national hero. One of my friends was a student of his in the ’70.
Do you know him?
Not personally but I have become interested in his writing about deep ecology.
I don’t know Jamie’s work. So I will have to locate her books, I think!! Often, in the US it is hard to find environmental writers who are not from here…even when they are writing in English. But I see she is published by Bloodaxe, and their books are often available in the US.