Charles Hood delivers a presentation, “Subjective Nature: Trusting Your Voice as a Nature Writer” at the 2024 Sierra Writers Conference.

This is an online event. CLICK HERE to get a general admission ticket to attend here.

As writers, we are encouraged to be ourselves on the page, to write what we know, and yet to honor those who have come before—from Emily Dickinson to Rebecca Solnit. This craft-focused talk will explore ways of navigating those competing goals, and will suggest ways not only for finding your own unique voice, but for using that voice to create publishable work. Along the way we will talk about how not to die of bubonic plague, how to use the word qiviut in a sentence, and why Bob Dylan is god.

Charles Hood has published 19 books, including Nocturnalia: Nature in the Western Night (Heyday, 2023) and California’s Best Nature Walks (Timber Press, 2024). His work has been praised by Gary Snyder, Charles Wright, Gary Soto, and Jonathan Franzen, and his awards include a Best Nonfiction Book award, the Editor’s Choice Prize from Foreword magazine, the Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry (U of Wisconsin Press), the Hollis Summers Prize in Poetry (Ohio State Press), and the Kenneth Patchen Prize for Innovative Fiction. He has been an Artist-in-Residence in Antarctica, a Fulbright Scholar in New Guinea, and a Research Fellow with the Center for Art + Environment, Nevada Museum of Art. A supporter of Sierra College, three years ago Charles followed the lead of his mentor, the late Clint Colby, by donating his personal poetry collection to the school.