Events

Advance registration is necessary for all workshops.
Does your group want to host a workshop on a particular topic? Workshops tailored to your specific needs are offered upon request. 

Book Events (& News!)

Read the blurbs for Writing on the Landscape by clicking here.

Please stay tuned: We, Jennifer Wilhoit and Steve Jones, have completed our co-authored book draft and are now in the editing phase. Our book is entitled Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature; it is filled with personal and professional experiences about how nature and life are intertwined. We expect to begin scheduling book events in the spring (2019).

Upcoming Workshops, Retreats, Courses, & Presentations 

Click here to contact Jennifer for details about specific offerings

Ongoing Online Course - Growing Words of Compassion: Nature and Writing Practices to Love By
This on-demand course is available now (register and take the course whenever you want). This hands-on, multidisciplinary course will help students engage with their innate capacity for tender compassion. The curriculum is designed to meet each student where s/he currently is in the understanding and practice of compassion; deepening one’s expression of compassion is the primary focus. Click here for more information.

Coming this year! Online Courses - Writing on the Landscape: The Book Experienced and Instructors' Guide to "Writing on the Landscape"

January 14 - February 10, 2019 Growing Words of Compassion: Nature and Writing Practices to Love By online course $199. Register here. 

Mid-January 2019 Grief Support Groups begin
Join others who have recently suffered a loss for bi-weekly (every other week) co-support groups. Share what hurts, what helps, and how you are taking steps on the journey forward. We'll schedule online meetings to accommodate as many people's schedules as possible. Contact Jennifer.

February 2 - 3, 2019 Life, Loves, and Explosions BARN bookmaking course (Jennifer J. Wilhoit with MJ Linford) $178. ($140. for BARN members) REGISTER HERE
This weekend class combines bookmaking techniques and writing activities in a fun-filled two days. In this class you will work with a master bookmaker and a published author to explore four themes: inspiration, power, shape, and passion. You will first create the basic structure of an explosion box, a specially created form whose sides drop outward as the lid is removed. You will then have the opportunity to engage the themes through guided writing activities, and to make several unusual structures that relate to them. As we work through the weekend, you will fill your box with images and writings that capture your relationship, your “take,” on these themes in your life. 

February 18 - March 17, 2019 Writing on the Landscape: The Book Experienced online course

March 23, 2019 Spring Equinox workshop

March 28 - 29, 2019 Potent Transformation in Conflict: Ecology and Creativity presentation at the Twenty-Fifth Annual Northwest Dispute Resolution Conference at University of Washington School of Law

April 27 - 28, 2019 Books Meet Writing in the Natural World BARN bookmaking course (Jennifer J. Wilhoit with MJ Linford) $180. ($140. for BARN members)  REGISTER HERE

In this two-session class you will learn the techniques and gain the skills necessary for making your own nature journal/sketchbook with a Coptic binding. Learn from a writer/spiritual ecologist and a master bookmaker. You will be guided through step-by-step instructions for compiling, completing, and decorating your handmade book. Coptic-bound journals allow for pages to be opened flat, making them ideal for outdoor use. You will also be guided through simple outdoor, creative, nature-based, and writing activities aimed to inspire content for your journal/sketchbook. Please bring a willingness to go outside (with weather-appropriate clothing, rain or shine) for brief periods of time to engage in some of these inspiring activities. Students will leave class with their Coptic-bound book and a start on filling the pages with nature-inspired writings and images. (This class is a pre-requisite for the June 8-9 class.)

Late spring or midsummer 2019 RETREAT! 

June 8 - 9, 2019 Books Meet Writing in the Natural World, Part II BARN bookmaking course (Jennifer J. Wilhoit with MJ Linford) $190. ($145. for BARN members) REGISTER HERE
During this weekend class you will expand and deepen your learning from the Books Meet Writing in the Natural World class (offered in April 2019 and September 2018). The book form you will create is called a blizzard book, originally invented by Hedi Kyle. This book structure allows for insertion of completed pages after the binding is completed. This is ideal for adding polished writing, and decorated pages, as you are inspired. You will be guided through simple, outdoor, creative, nature-based, and writing activities aimed to feed your inspiration, and to tantalize your muse. Please bring a willingness (and weather-appropriate gear) to go outside – rain or shine – to engage these activities. Leave class with a beautiful and writing-filled book that makes you proud. The April 27-28 class is a pre-requisite for this class.

Popular Workshops

Writing the Inner/Outer Landscape - Introduction
Explore what it means to write from the perspective of the inner and outer landscapes. Participants will have the opportunity to engage with three evocative types of written expression: writing for insight, writing as rite and writing for outcome. Whether a novice or experienced writer, you are invited to see what emerges when writing meets inspiration and nature. 

Writing the Inner/Outer Landscape - Five Part Series, Includes:
Branching Out: Brainstorming
Stacking the Rocks: Getting Organized
Diving into the Stream: Actually Writing
The Brambled Trail: Roadblocks in Writing
Climbing the Mountain: Finding Stamina

Grief and Writing
Writing is a powerful way to work through the difficult emotions associated with loss or transition. Whether your life changes and sorrows are past or current, this workshop offers a path toward wholeness. You will have the opportunity to explore your individual expression of grief in a safe, confidential community. I will introduce a variety of simple nature-based, spiritual, and creative practices that can help you cultivate and sustain peaceful wellbeing even during hard times. 

Writing for the Equinox/Solstice
We will explore how the seasons shape and move us. Our time together will include sitting, writing, and walking solo on the land in order to experience more deeply our inner seasons.

Titles of Past Workshops & Trainings 

Altar-Making Workshop
Alternatives to Voice: Writing as a Means to Understanding
An Antidote to Writers’ Block
Compassionate Practices in Trying Circumstances
Crafting Your Writing Life
Developing a Body of Work: Beginners
Developing a Body of Work: Phase II
Exploring our Spiritual Roots: The Inner/Outer Landscape
Grief & Writing for the Holidays
Journeying Through Personal Responsibility Toward a Culture of Peace
Journeys into Landscapes: Travel Journaling
Meditation and Writing
Nature Journaling
Reaching Writing Goals
Season’s Greetings: Writing for the Holidays
Stories of Conflict: Calming Practices Rooted in Ecological Writing
Stories of Conflict: Writing for Insight as a Tool for Mediating
Sustainable Earth, Sustainable Lives: Writing that Sustains
Taking a Deeper Dive: Writing Stories that Transform
The Journey Through Grief
Transforming Conflict, Transforming Lives: Re-writing & Re-rooting Stories
Treephilia: Global Earth Exchange, in connection with Radical Joy for Hard Times
Volunteers Who Thrive: Writing & Nature Practices in Hospice Service
Writing as Life; Life as Writing
Writing as Rite
Writing for Non-Writers
Writing for Serenity
Writing for the Autumnal Equinox 
Writing for the Holidays
Writing for the Spring Equinox
Writing for the Summer Solstice
Writing for the Winter Solstice
Writing, Meditation, and Creativity
Writing No Matter What: Getting Words on the Page
Written Story Workshop