Category: Writing

Environmental Issues/Nature, Social Commentary, Writing

September 23, 2011

A Wolf’s Eye

I became interested in the history of Oregon’s wolf bounty—a sanctioned act to eradicate—kill off—the wolf population to make way for ranching—while reading and teaching Molly Gloss’s The Jump-Off Creek. I’d just moved to Redmond, a farm town in Central Oregon, and liked the idea of an Oregon author writing the story of the early…
Personal Narrative, Portland, Social Commentary, Writing

September 21, 2011

Sing your story

“…and we sail into the mystic…” I’m sitting in the winery at Edgefield, listening to Raina Rose sing. I’m here with Kate, Kate’s parents, and Raina’s dad. I am trying to define what I am sensing and observing. The generation of parents, now dressed in button-downs and Docker khakis, members of that special generation in…
Around the Pacific Northwest, Environmental Issues/Nature, Writing

September 21, 2011

Beaver teeth and salmon runs

This is the first piece of writing for my Science Writing class… might not be super-interesting, but I wanted to post it just as a starting point on my journey to becoming a science writer. I did take out the really assignment-driven parts. Practice, practice, practice–right? BTW, the assignment was to take a look at…
Environmental Issues/Nature, Social Commentary, Writing

June 10, 2011

Conversations about the environment

So, I’m just beginning my last class at Green Mountain College. The core of the program has been conservation biology–everything about keeping the natural world intact. This included ecology, law and policy, bioregionalism, leadership, and conservation biology itself. All of this coursework, all the hours on the couch reading and at the computer researching and…
Personal Narrative, Writing

January 9, 2011

Run Baby Run, Don’t Ever Look Back

There are so many ways I can begin this story: with the image of me opening the tea cupboard in my kitchen and glancing to the top shelf as I do once in a while to look at the bottle of Adam beer, the label of which has words in memory of him and the…
Personal Narrative, Writing

October 22, 2010

Moving through Nostalgia

I do the same thing with my blog that I do with all my other creative endeavors–I let it live in my head, awaiting the time that I have “time” to do it completely and with quality assurance. I call bullshit on this… I want to blog. I have shit to say. Today what’s on…
Writing

June 3, 2010

A common writing exercise: give me your day

Today began as usual–I got out of bed and sleepily took my dog for a walk. In general, we walk an hour each morning. Unless I need to sit or to drink tea. Today we went straight to the park where I threw Josh’s ball for him for a long while while I spoke with…
Personal Narrative, Writing

May 19, 2010

Flying over Mt. Everest

This is a time and a place of reflection. Back here, at Sandycrest Terrace–the first place I lived all on my own as an adult. The first place I was totally financially responsible for myself. The first place I was in charge of my whole life. Here I am again… (Written on May 18…) …I’ve…
Around the Pacific Northwest, Personal Narrative, Writing

May 3, 2010

Kinesthesia under the trees

If I don’t move, I can’t think, and last week I had a lot of thinking to do. So I went for a hike along the Wilson River. There’s a new trail there, built three or four years ago, and it parallels Highway 6 along the river. The portion of the trail Joshie and I…
Around the Pacific Northwest, Collage of Life, Social Commentary, Writing

April 14, 2010

Blog Post No. 1—Alabama Chanin, Textile Arts, Oral Tradition, and Celebrating the Everyday…

April 14, 2010 By Neva Knott I. I am a denizen of Powell’s Books. Last night, I attended the lecture about the vintage quilts hanging on the gallery wall there, given by Natalie Chanin of Alabama Chanin, a sustainable design firm. In the hour that Chanin spoke, she warmed my heart with the reminder of…