PLANET EARTH POETRY’S 9th ANNUAL writing RETREAT (2023)

Songs for a Changing World: Writing Our Hope and Grief About Place

with Dr. Jenna Butler

SATURday, JUly 29 10–5 AND SUNday, JUly 30, 9–3 2023

Led by Dr. Jenna Butler (she/her), participants will delve into their lived experiences of place through short prose experiments, then into poetry which will explore the radical hope and deep grief for the world that carries us all.

Jenna Butler says: “In these days of environmental upheaval and change, how do we write about the more-than-human world and our intricate ties to it, our reliance on it? Perhaps one way of seeing ourselves forward in hard times means having a realistic and grounded kind of hope that contains both space for possibility and room for grief. As writers, we find ourselves in the unique position of being able to speak to environmental change as it occurs to us. We can grieve and we can uplift in words as we experience the world changing so quickly, knowing that our work is not just for ourselves, but for those who will come after us.”

Dr. Butler is the author of three books of poetry, Seldom Seen Road, Wells, and Aphelion; a collection of ecological essays, A Profession of Hope: Farming on the Edge of the Grizzly Trail; and the Arctic travelogue Magnetic North: Sea Voyage to Svalbard. Her newest book, Revery: A Year of Bees, essays about beekeeping, climate grief, and trauma recovery, was a finalist for the 2021 Governor General’s Literary Award in Non-Fiction and a longlisted title for CBC Canada Reads 2023 As a BIPOC writer and grower, Butler speaks internationally on equitable land access and reciprocal ecological relationships in agriculture. She is a retired professor of creative and environmental writing and an off-grid organic farmer in northern Treaty 6. 

COST: $225  Maximum 12 participants.

TO REGISTER: Please email your name, address and phone number to Nancy Issenman.
SUBJECT LINE: 2023 PEP retreat
PAYMENT: Cheque made out to Planet Earth Poetry, OR e-transfer to this PEP email. Your cheque or e-transfer will hold your place. NO REFUNDS AFTER MONDAY, JULY 24.

LOCATION: A comfortable private home in the Gorge area. Directions will be given upon registration.

Two Indigenous bursaries are available on a first-come, first-served basis for participants who identify as Indigenous and register by July 15. Please let Nancy know when you register.

Please be aware of PEP’s cancellation policy: Your cheque or e-transfer will hold your place, and if you have to cancel before JULY 24, this will be refunded. Cancellations after the 24th will not be refunded.