Ode to the Un: Praising the Unnoticed, Unappreciated, and Unloved

Course Description: In this workshop, participants will be encouraged to turn their attention to the humble and overlooked beings in landscapes they’ve lived in or observed. We’ll look at some unexpected odes written to plants, creatures, and places that are generally not thought of as praiseworthy. Participants will be invited to write their own ode (in poetry or prose) praising an unappreciated or unloved aspect of the natural world (think snakes, possums, cockroaches, poison oak, etc.).

About the Instructor: Brittney Corrigan is the author of the poetry collections Daughters, Breaking, Navigation, 40 Weeks and most recently, Solastalgia, a collection of poems about climate change, extinction, and the Anthropocene Age (JackLeg Press, 2023). Brittney was raised in Colorado and has lived in Portland, Oregon for more than three decades, where she is an alumna and employee of Reed College. Her debut short story collection, The Ghost Town Collectives, is forthcoming from Middle Creek Publishing in October, 2024. For more information, visit www.brittneycorrigan.com.