Write on the Wild Side!
--The Nature of Writing About Nature Workshop Series 2017 --Plus -- Wild Writer's Fun Slam, open to the public. You can become a better writer ⎯ and a more attentive, creative and effective outdoors person ⎯ when you sign up for Write on the Wild Side! This is a series [$55] of four workshops ⎯ each 2-hours, 45-minutes, with total classroom and fieldwork time of 11 hours
⎯ presented by award-winning freelance writer and educator Lynn Kuhns. Open to teen and adult writers and wordsmith to be,"Write on the Wild Side!" (WoWS!) will be held at Terrill’s Island Nature Center classroom, located on the south shore of Lake Butte des Morts (entrance via Rivermoor Road, off Highway 21 between Oshkosh and Omro), with assistance from the Butte des Morts Conservation Club. on three consecutive Tuesdays ⎯⎯ June 13, 20, 27; with the last class on Thursday, July 6, due to the holiday. Class size is limited to 15. A UW-O graduate and Winneconne resident, Kuhns has designed this workshop series to benefit writers of all abilities, genres and passions ⎯ while also providing creative fun, insights and opportunities to explore and engage with nature and other local writers.
“Throughout history, nature and the outdoors experience has inspired writers, singers, scientists, painters, philosophers and others,” Kuhns said. “But this workshop series isn’t only for ‘outdoor writers.’ It’s for anyone who wants to free up and support their observation skills and creative energies by writing and revising poems, essays, short stories ⎯ any venue they choose.”
She added, “Here in rural Northeast Wisconsin, the Winnebago waterways system gives us so much to see, listen to, dream about, and learn from ⎯ in any season. Terrill’s Island is an ideal near-but-far setting in which to begin with professional guidance. But word artists can also find inspiration in their own backyards.”
Kuhns has published hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles, literary pieces, essays and columns as an editor, staff writer, reporter and freelancer. Her work has appeared in The Oshkosh Northwestern, Fox Cities magazine, Wolf River Country, Silent Sports, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Bamboo Ridge literary magazine and other publications. She designed and taught creative-writing classes at Fox Valley Technical College, Learning in Retirement (UW-O), literary conferences and other settings. Students have praised her classes and teaching style as enjoyable, fun, informative, friendly and effective. Attention is on literary techniques, structure and style options, rules of grammar, the creative process and other elements of writing well. This series includes four themed participatory classroom lessons, informative in-class critiques, on-site fieldwork, and at-home assignments, all designed to broaden each writer’s abilities. For each student, Kuhns will edit and assess the assignments. Kuhns gives attention to each student’s goals and learning style. “Writing well is an art form that’s very individual, very powerful, very nourishing and very much alive. It’s also easily affordable and accessible. And, it certainly can be learned.”
To showcase WoWS students’ work, and invite others with a love of nature, Wild Words Out Loud, a free presentation open to the public, will include an open mike and refreshments. (Date, place to be announced.) Kuhns plans to offer fall and winter 2017 WoWS sessions, and coordinate other local writing related events, including some related to the Winneconne Bridge and the 50th anniversary of Sovereign State Days. For more information and fees, call Lynn Kuhns at her home office: 920-582-0233; cell/text: 920-252-5733, e-mail [email protected]; mail 6693 Lasley Shore Drive, Winneconne, WI 54986. Search Lynn Kuhns, Winneconne, Face Book, to be directed to the Write on the Wild Side Writers event page, and sign-in and payment information. Lynn Kuhns, Town of Winneconne, now offers Write on the Wild Side! workshops. “My goal is to guide writers toward leading a writer’s life in their own world. We each have our own impediments and talents. We’ll discuss the challenges of too-little time, the dread of revising, and that nasty self-talk. We’ll explore the talents of really experiencing nature, and how to best share its lessons, dreams, questions, heartaches and songs.”
