Adult & Higher Education

This new course offers a chance for you to explore how various writers have imagined, questioned and redefined our relationship with the natural world. Over ten weeks, you'll discover stories set in forests, floodplains, futures and even apocalyptic landscapes, looking at how literature both shapes and is shaped by the environment.

From climate fiction and nature writing to eco-poetry and eco-thrillers, we’ll examine how literature tackles ecological crises, celebrates nonhuman life and imagines alternative worlds. You'll read works by authors who blur the line between humans and the environment, turning landscapes, species, and ecosystems into powerful characters in their own right.

Each week, you'll focus on a key text—from T.C. Boyle's A Friend of the Earth and Margaret Attwood's The Year of the Flood, to Jeff VanderMeer's Hummingbird Salamander and Andri Magnason's On Time and Water. Along with close readings, discussions, and critical reflections, you'll think about not just what these stories tell us about our planet, but also how the way they’re written can help raise awareness and inspire change.

Whether you're passionate about ecology, literature, or the space where they overlap, this course will give you a deeper understanding of how stories can both reflect and reshape the world we live in.

There will be optional pre-reading each week for those who want to dive in even further.

• How writers represent the relationship between humans and nonhumans
• Climate fiction, eco-poetry, speculative and posthuman storytelling
• Nature writing and its influence on environmental awareness
• Environmental justice and the politics of place
• The emotions, ethics and aesthetics of ecological writing
• How literary form and language shape our sense of “nature”

No prior experience with literary analysis is needed—just a love for reading, great stories, and meaningful conversations! Whether you’re rediscovering literature or diving in for the first time, this course is for you!

Please bring paper and pens, or a laptop/word processor if preferred.

This course builds a strong foundation in literary analysis and critical thinking. You could progress to further study or one of our other writing and literature-based leisure courses.