Holly teaches classes in literature and creative writing at the University of Georgia, as well as independently, online. Below are archived and upcoming classes and webinars open to the public. She is also a certified naturalist, offering classes in an array of topics. You can hire Holly as a naturalist, a writing coach, or to read your nonfiction, poetry, or fiction manuscript. If interested, get in touch via the Contact page.
Writing Rhizomatically: A generative writing course for Orion magazine
WRITING RHIZOMATICALLY Rhizomes are the runners that many plants and trees (like sassafras, elder, Solomon’s seal, ferns, and mayapples) send forth as they spread outward from a “mother” plant into a proliferation of shoots. In this class, we will use this growth pattern as a metaphor for our writing. How can we begin with one idea or image and let it grow naturally outward? How can we allow our thoughts to spread across the page in search of fertile ground adjacent to the “mother” thought, shooting up into more green growth? Let us send forth runners, explore, and see what takes root. This course will be process-oriented and generative. Writers will have an ample amount of class time to generate material, share thoughts and ideas. We will read some published works with rhizomatic structures. Your instructor will invite plants, their rhizomes and roots, into the class for inspiration, and you will develop a draft of an essay throughout the course. Let us write in plant-like ways, in ways that machines can’t. Let us wander, probe the page as soil, and draw ourselves closer to our own rhizomatic intelligence. Six classes will be held on Zoom, in two three-week blocks, with a break of one week in between. The Duration: Classes will run over six Thursdays from September 12 – October 24 from 4:30-7:30 ET/1:30-4:30 PT. * Note: We will not meet on October 3rd, but rather use that week as break for your writing to grow outside of class. Application window: July 15-30 2024 >>Register at Orion magazine<< The Instructor Holly Haworth is a certified Southern Appalachian naturalist, a poet, and an award-winning essayist. Her essays have been listed as notable in The Best American Travel Writing and included in The Best American Science and Nature Writing. They appear in The New York Times Magazine, Orion, Oxford American, Lapham’s Quarterly, Sierra, Terrain.org, Literary Hub, and at the On Being radio program blog. She is a recipient of the Middlebury Fellowship in Environmental Journalism. Her first book of poems, The Way the Moon, is forthcoming. Her first nonfiction book This Resounding World: A Field Guide to Listening was the winner of a Robert B. Silvers Foundation grant for works in progress. {Painting by Michel Alexis, from his Rhizome series}
Leaning Against in the Darkness
No artist is an island. The Western myth of the lone artistic genius needs to be shot down. This course centers the interdependent nature of writing and will radically transform your practice. By allowing yourself to lean against, and to be leaned against, you’ll turn your art into a force, and you will gain strength for the darkness we’re in.
Grounded: Land and Place in Literature
"Through the iron-barred window I see a square field of wheat in an enclosure… above which I see the morning sun rising in all its glory." —Van Gogh, in a letter to his brother Theo, from the asylum at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence
Multitudes: The More-than-Human World in Literature
In this class, we will begin to uncover narratives of our deep intimacies and intertwinings with what the philosopher David Abram calls the more-than-human world. As we read and discuss stories, poems, and essays, we will examine the role of the sensuous terrain and all its living beings in literature. More Details
Leaning Against
“The name of a self is poverty.” — Alice Notley “…Dependence on others—or at least relation to them—is the condition of possibility for self-reliance.” — Maggie Nelson More Details
Getting Unstuck
“You cannot overcome being stuck if you somehow feel you would be guilty if you were stuck. When you are perfectly free to feel stuck or not stuck, then you’re unstuck. … More Details
Writing Coaching
I am available to support you as you work on honing your craft, refining your vision, establishing a regular writing practice, getting past your fears and hang-ups, crafting your book pitch, or whatever other goals you would like to set for yourself. More Details
Manuscript Review
I read nonfiction, poetry, and fiction manuscripts and offer editing and feedback. More Details
From Cold Facts to Truths that Sing: Incorporating Research into Creative Nonfiction
A webinar at Creative Nonfiction, May 2022 More Details
Outdoor Education
As a certified naturalist, Holly teaches an array of outdoor-education classes, which can be tailored to any age group (ages 3-100). She is currently available for classes locally in the Georgia Piedmont and Southern Appalachian regions, as well as remotely on Zoom. Possible topics include but are not limited to: tree identification, forest ecology, aquatic wildlife, nature journaling, haiku (seasonal nature poetry), botany, foraging, and medicinal plants. To inquire about rates, please visit the contact page.