Food and Environmental Writing
with Joe Fassler
March 11th, 2024 - May 9th, 2024
Led by Joe Fassler, editor and writer, this workshop-driven course immerses students in the art of food and environmental writing, with an emphasis on the way politics and power shape personal experience.
Through encounters with essential reading in key topic areas, and case studies of coverage that fell short, participants will deepen subject matter familiarity while learning to navigate each genre's unique challenges. We will focus especially on the development of necessary skills, including the ability to:
craft compelling stories about vast, interconnected systems;
balance human-level narratives with complex science and policy issues;
interrogate popular narratives that mislead and obscure; and
handle culturally fraught topics with sensitivity and nuance.
The workshop component will then put these lessons into practice, with opportunities for students to develop a specific piece of writing through a process of instructor feedback and peer critique.
Each participant will receive in-depth consideration of at least one piece of nonfiction, as well as a personalized consultation with the instructor. This course will also include a significant practical component, with mini-lessons related to newsgathering, story development, pitching, and book publication.
This course is appropriate for experienced writers who are new to the topic, as well as topical experts who are new to writing. It will even provide challenges for established food/environmental authors looking to up-skill or hone their craft in different genres.
Students with interest in any sub-genre related to food and environmental writing—including straight news, narrative journalism, reported essay, and memoir—are encouraged to apply.
Course Overview
Introduction
Week 1: Welcome and Orientation - Introductions, goals and the desired outcomes of the course.
Section One: Context
Week 2: “Nature” and “Pleasure” - A tour of the food and environment media ecosystem, including avenues for publication.
Week 3: Haunted by History - A look at the specifically American injustices that haunt food and environmental writing.
Section Two: Craft
Week 4: Character - Balancing the need to tell a big picture story with the need for relatable human characters.
Week 5: Structure - Mastering the lead—the initial, all-important overture—and using it to create a roadmap for your story.
Section Three: Career
Week 6: The Path to Publication - What opportunities exist to publish writing about food and the environment? Finding appropriate venues for your work.
Week 7: Pitch Workshop - Students write a magazine feature pitch and receive feedback from their instructor and classmates.
Week 8: Next Steps - Thinking about trajectory. Mapping out a realistic five-year plan.
Food and Environmental Writing Offerings
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The Food & Environmental Writing Course
This particular opportunity invites learners to establish a conceptual framing and overview of the discipline, analyze what it means to participate in the long and complex project of food and environmental writing while interrupting tired narratives, consider our positionality as members of the environment, and step gently toward this learning and potential work without the barrier of evaluation.
This option & investment level provides access to the Food & Environmental Writing course site for 1 year, all materials and ability to participate in 8 synchronous class sessions (which will also be recorded and posted on the course site). It does NOT include participation in the workshop sessions (described below). To support accessibility and encourage the participation of new and not-yet-professional writers, we are offering this option for a small commitment fee of $75.
We invite participants who have the means to do so - and/or benefited significantly from the actions and systems that contributed most to food, environmental, and climate injustices - to donate, at the end of the course, any additional amount they think appropriate and commensurate with the value they received. Such donations will support our ability to continue offering EcoGather educational opportunities.
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The Food & Environmental Writers’ Workshop
There are limited seats in the companion Food & Environmental Writers’ Workshop, which are ideal for learners ready to dive into not only the foundational concepts but also the craft of food and environmental writing with a greater degree of commitment. Learners who are ready to receive feedback on existing or imminent pieces of prose related to food and the environment are encouraged to apply. Participation in the workshop component of this learning journey is on an application basis and requires the review of a writing sample.
The application is linked below; once you've completed it, you can expect to receive a response and further enrollment instructions within fourteen days.
The application window closes on February 12, 2024.
The cost to participate in the course and workshop is $1250. Diverse Voices Fellowships are available to make sure that cost is not a barrier to those whose perspectives are underrepresented in this field.
(Scroll down for details.)
The $1250 fee covers access to the Food & Environmental Writing course site for 1 year, all materials, 8 synchronous class sessions, PLUS participation in 9 small group workshop sessions. Each workshop participant will have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with Joe Fassler, and get dedicated time and space to have one piece workshopped by the instructor and peers. Workshop participants will also hear from and connect with leading editors and writers in the field and have opportunities to publish using the EcoGather platform.
Diverse
Voices
Fellowship
To support the development of voices presently underrepresented in the field of food and environmental writing, we offer Diverse Voices Fellowship opportunities that cover the full cost of participation.
We define “Diverse Voices” more expansively than most, and thoughtfully consider a wide range of lived experiences that contribute to a more inclusive and varied learning community - particularly one dedicated to shaping broader cultural understandings of how we engage with food and environment.
In addition to considering factors such as race, ethnicity, gender, and veteran status, we especially encourage fellowship applications from emerging writers who have experienced poverty and those who do not consider themselves to have financial privilege. We are also especially interested in offering fellowships to those who work in agriculture, food systems, or other land-based livelihoods (who often have minoritized identities and are under-compensated for their essential labor).
This is part of how we shift and nuance narratives
that inform food and environmental policy and politics
for more just, resilient and survivable futures.
Meet Joe Fassler
Joe Fassler is a Denver-based writer and editor. His food and environmental reporting, which appears in outlets like Bloomberg Businessweek, The Atlantic, The Guardian, and The Best American Food Writing, has been supported by the Ted Scripps Fellowship in Environmental Journalism and the 11th Hour Food and Farming Fellowship. In his former role as deputy editor of The Counter, stories he edited won a James Beard Media Award, appeared twice in Best American Food Writing, and netted multiple SABEW business writing awards. He's also author of Light the Dark: Writers on Creativity, Inspiration, and the Artistic Process (Penguin Books, 2017) and the forthcoming novel The Sky Was Ours (Penguin, 2024).