Join Us for a Live Class

Our group writing classes are the perfect setting to learn from those who have interests similar to your own. These classes are offered either online or in-person at different locations around the Madison area. Group classes cover topics related to nature, sustainability, poetry, creative writing, and wellness. These classes are for those looking to learn new skills or simply enjoy discussing and journaling about some great books and interesting topics.

Browse the schedule below to learn more and register for upcoming classes! Have any questions or issues registering? Send us a message and we’ll be happy to help you out.

Available Classes

Class Descriptions

Writing Nature Memories

We live in a fast-paced “attention-economy” and spend plenty of time tuned-into executive function tasks or mulling over the future, but an awful lot of our nature writing ultimately comes from experiences in the past, even if as recent as the day before. In this class, we will take a look at the ‘nature’ of memory, describe how nature writing from memories is a creative and restorative act that offers us the benefits of connecting us closer to ourselves, others, and place.

The Poetry of Wellbeing

Nature writing can become an integral daily ritual – similar to meditation, Yoga, exercise – for improving one’s overall wellbeing. Writing tends to promote creativity, identity-building, spurs imagination and healthy ‘flow’ states, all productive conditions for positive mental health. This class is meant for beginners and anyone interested in various topics connected to contemporary wellbeing practices applied to the writing process.

Mary Oliver Society

On the Yahara Writing Center has presented a variety of Mary Oliver appreciation classes and poetry workshops in the Madison area for the last several years. There has been a very warm and enthusiastic reception by participants for these classes. The Madison Area Mary Oliver Society is meant to serve as an extension of these past classes as well as to continue an evolving conversation of appreciation, topics, techniques and feedback.

The Nature Fix – Nature Writing and Well-being

In this nature poetry writing class, we will first take a look at the profound new observations made by researchers, journalists, and leaders in the ‘reconnect to nature’ movement as they, and so many others, redefine our modern need for nature experience. We will then discuss how nature writing, specifically the process of creating nature poetry, can offer an efficient and effective practice for regularly finding our own ‘nature fix’ for the sake of overall well-being.

Eco-Poetry: Following W.S. Merwin

Lauded as one of the most important poetic voices of the last half century, W.S. Merwin had cultivated a uniquely spiritually-tuned voice concerned always with the state of nature, time, and human perception. This class will be at once a conversation revolving around topics of ecology, eastern spirituality, and poetic technique.

Nature Poetry

This class is meant to be a broad sampler of modern nature poetry, covering poets from Gary Snyder to Joy Harjo to Evie Shockley. There are too many nature topics to list here, but nature poetry generally asks the question “what is our human relationship to nature?” We will try to develop and apply other more contemporary topics from nature studies as well, including our psychological need for nature fixes, modes of sustainability, and loss of biological diversity, all from varying cultural viewpoints.

Writing Mindfulness and Eastern Poetry

Mindfulness is a positive way of directing our attention toward life, wisdom, inter-relationships, and time, among so many other topics, and is gaining ground as an outlet for spiritual development. How might writing support and enhance mindfulness as a regular and rewarding daily practice? In this class, we will take a look at ways for re-thinking about daily writing as a spiritual process that can bring us closer to the natural world and promote creative positive images. A background understanding of Chinese poetry not a pre-requisite for this class.

Eco-Poetry as Healing Art

“The Great Work, based on the story of life’s unfolding, moves us away from a preoccupation with the self into the larger ecologicial self of the Earth Community. This movement has deep implications for our psychological healing, awakening in us a sense of both awe and belonging.” – K. Lauren de Boer, “Healing and the Great Work,” from Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind.

For this class we will use the quote above as inspiration to consider ways of finding spiritual practice in the process of understanding and writing eco-centric poetry. An eco-spiritual practice will often have to do with experiencing the natural world first-hand, observing it in relation to self, and then creating as a natural act in itself that allows us to restore our connection to place, self, the earth.

Nature Poetry for Seniors

This class is created for seniors, but all are invited for a gentle walk along the Pheasant Branch Trail for the sake of experiencing movement and wonder at the nature world. We will offer a variety of genres of nature writing as common reading and consider ways that we might write and share our own observations for the second session.

Mary Oliver and the Art of Observation in Nature

In this class we will introduce the poetry of acclaimed nature poet Mary Oliver and cover the essence of four different thematic techniques of observation which will greatly enhance our ability to write nature poetry spontaneously and regularly.

We will learn ways to efficiently apply some of the more essential poetic techniques necessary to write nature poetry. We will learn to both recognize and write themes of observation as experience, celebration, gratitude, and imagination. How we perceive nature is directly related to our ability to turn our observations to poetry. Our true class goal is to broaden our ability to comprehend and express our connection to the natural world, a practice proven to increase our overall well-being.

Poem-a-Day: The Essential Guide to Writing a Poem a Day

Poetry in many ways is the ideal creative outlet for those who want to continue to write regularly but who have a limited amount of time available each day to set aside for creative pursuits. Why? Even though we might think of poetry as a difficult form, it doesn’t have to be that way. Once we break through a few myths and perceived difficulties, we can begin to see that poetry can be an efficient, spontaneous, low-pressure, high reward creative outlet, perfect for the busy creative.

In this class we will learn how to efficiently read for writing, draw essential material from daily life, the advantages of free verse, natural line lengths, the fun of sound, and most importantly the benefits of mindful and spontaneous writing.

The At-Home Nature Journal & Daybook

Writing a daily or weekly journal can be very creatively useful way use extra time at home. A daily journal can take many forms, but one thing they all have in common is our desire to connect to the details surrounding our life in a meaningful way through less formal prose. A nature journal is a great way to stay in touch with the outdoor, even if only in our imagination. The daybook is a form to consider for potentially longer, daily self-assigned entries. A great example of a garden daybook is Weathering Winter: A Gardener’s Daybook by Karl Klaus, which we will use in these meeting.

Writing Mindfulness

This class is an introduction to the profound connections between writing and mindfulness, specifically poetry as meditation. Mindfulness could be defined as one’s earned centered awareness in the present moment. There are many ways we can become more mindful in our lives and writing is one of the most essential and most efficient ways because it asks us to pay attention and center our energy on expression and the process of letting go.

First we will learn several essential tenets of eastern thought so that we have a firm understanding of what mindfulness is and then will learn how it is represented in ancient Chinese poetry. Writing similar poetry, we will further find, becomes itself a practice of mindfulness with the added benefit of creating something artful and expressive.

Journal to Poem

This class offers an accessible and engaging nature writing process emphasizing the importance of place-based writing based on nature journal techniques. Within the process of observation, journaling, and writing, we will discuss and practice ways to demystify writing poetry.

We will demystify the process of writing poetry by learning how to turn the uniform structure of nature journal observations to place-based poetry. Participants will learn how their creative expression can be an ongoing and rewarding point of entry to maintaining a healthy and regular relationship with nature, which many studies now show can boost self-esteem, self-identity, attention span, immunity, as well as provide newfound sources of joy in everyday life.

Urban Nature Appreciation

The urban nature appreciation class combines the essence of nature writing and an emerging new appreciation for the natural resources that surround us in the city. Very often we think of nature primarily as what exists outside of the city, but as city populations grow, more and more of our interaction with nature will happen within those green spaces and water features found in our city.

The first thing we will learn in this class is the process of re-seeing urban nature through the lens of historical examples of nature writing including the journal entry and poetry. We will then turn our attention to our related modern need to connect to nature for the sake of well-being and discuss why the process of nature writing is one of our greatest and most efficient tools for making this connection. The second half of the class is dedicated to the process of picking your genre, assembling details, and then writing for an audience. Finally, we will take a look at flash editing skills so that our writing is presentable to our blog or article audience.

Touching the Earth

Celebrate the Earth by working through the mindfulness practices offered us by Buddhist Monk Thich Nhat Hanh, author of Peace is Every Step, among so many other books, and draw insights to write your own daily meditations and poetry. This class will help you cultivate a practice of appreciation for the natural world and insight into turning mindfulness into poetry.