Listening to the Land
THURSDAY - FRIDAY ACTIVITIES
On Thursday afternoon we convene at Saturn's Return Farm and enjoy thought provoking stories and environmental activity updates from authors Thor Hanson and Robert Dash whose works intersect the arts and nature. Meet our Poets, Jill McCabe Johnson, Danny Sherrard, and Abigail Morgan Prout.
Farm to Fork dinner option at the Farm. See accommodation option below.
Friday Morning, we meet at the Farm and then head out to a nature preserve.
Join poets Jill McCabe Johnson and Danny Sherrard for this full day of land-based experiences with writing activities. Visiting the precedent-setting land protection models of San Juan County Land Bank Preserves, you will learn about the fascinating features of these places, practice listening to their story, and translate those experiences into the written word or song. Land Bank conservationist and writer Shauna Barrows is our field trip guide.
Morning is focused on field experiences, picnic lunch is provided, and then afternoon we return to the farm for poetry workshopping, writing, and selecting a piece to share in the evening Poetry Slam at Waterworks Gallery in Friday Harbor.
Deep Seeing and Writing
SATURDAY ACTIVITIES
On Saturday we start the morning at Lime Kiln State Park overlooking the Salish Sea and learn techniques for deep seeing, moving at the speed of lichen, and develop our inner story in response to the natural world. Author and noted photographer Robert Dash will be joined by poet Abigail Morgan Prout to create a supportive container for seeing, listening, and walking in nature.
Bring your journals, sketch books, and cameras for this written and visual arts exploration.
From the sea, we will journey up the hill to a Land Bank Preserve and will be joined by Shauna Burrows to look at the story of the land, in its own voice. After a picnic lunch, we will return to the farm and select images and writings that tell the story of our close observations. These works will be showcased during the Saturday evening dinner at Brickworks.
Saturday evening you are welcome to attend the Eye of the Whale Splash! this dinner, creative showcase, music and performance art event welcomes all Eye of the Whale participants and family members who may be traveling with you. 6-9pm in Friday Harbor. Dinner event reservations are available through our Travel link.
Accommodations
Listening to the Land writers retreat homebase is at Saturn's Return Farm in the center of San Juan Island, surrounded by farmlands and forests. To make the 3-night reservation, email us for the group reservation code. (Our dates are blocked out so the code is required to book.)
Thor Hanson, author
Author and biologist Thor Hanson is a Guggenheim Fellow, a Switzer Environmental Fellow, and winner of the John Burroughs Medal. His books include Close to Home, Buzz, Feathers, and the children’s favorite Star and the Maestro. Thor’s work has been translated into a dozen languages and earned many accolades, including the Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science and three Pacific Northwest Book Awards. He co-hosted the PBS Nature series American Spring Live, and has appeared on programs ranging from Fresh Air to Science Friday, and WIRED Currents. Hanson lives with his family on an island in the Pacific Northwest.
Jill McCabe Johnson, poet and author
Jill is the author of three full-length poetry collections, including Tangled in Vow & Beseech, finalist in the Sally Albiso Poetry Book Award and Wheelbarrow Books Poetry Award and forthcoming from MoonPath Press, Revolutions We'd Hoped We'd Outgrown, (Finishing Line, 2017) shortlisted for the Clara Johnson Award in Women's Literature from Jane's Stories Press Foundation, and Diary of the One Swelling Sea (MoonPath, 2013), winner of the Nautilus Book Silver Award in Poetry. Jill is also the author of the nonfiction chapbook Borderlines (Sweet Publications, 2016) and the poetry chapbook, Pendulum (Seven Kitchens, 2017), finalist for the Rane Arroyo Award. Jill is the founder and editor-in-chief at Wandering Aengus Press and its imprint Trail to Table Press.
https://jillmccabejohnson.com/
Danny Sherrard, poet and community organizer
Danny Sherrard is the founder of Island Verse Literary Collective, a nonprofit organization honoring the voices of the San Juans. He is the youngest person to have won the Individual National Poetry Slam in Austin in 2007 as well as the World Poetry Cup in Paris in 2008. Write Bloody published his first collection of poetry in 2009. Between 2008-2020 Sherrard toured and orchestrated poetry workshops across the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Europe. A Pushcart Prize nominee, his poetry has appeared in numerous publications across the United States and Europe. He is currently putting the finishing touches on his new rendering of the Gilgamesh Epic and is collaborating in many forms of literary magic within the arts community of the San Juan archipelago.
Robert Dash, author and photographer
Robert Dash is a lifelong fan of close-up nature. His micrograph images have been featured in National Geographic, TIME, Geographical and Nautilus magazines, and in museums and juried shows internationally. Dash’s Food Planet Future: The Art of Turning Food and Climate Perils Into Possibilities (Papadakis, 2024) explores regenerative solutions to the tangled crises of climate, biodiversity loss, and food insecurity. His 2017 book, On an Acre Shy of Eternity: Micro Landscapes at the Edge, won the Nautilus Book Award/ Best of Photography and Best of Self Published. This contemplative project was born from three years focusing on the poetry and beauty of the land where he and his partner, artist Ranna McNeil, reside.
https://www.robertdashphotography.com/
Abigail Morgan Prout
Abigail grew up as a wild island hippie child on the bitsy island of Lopez in the Salish Sea. She surprised herself by returning to raise a family here. Walk Deep, her first book, won the 2021 Homebound Publications Poetry Prize, a 2023 Nautilus Book Award, and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Walk Deep was published by Wayfarer Books in October 2022. This book is a love letter to Lopez Island, specifically to a forest path on Lopez Hill that functions as her muse. Abigail is passionate about the role that nature and writing play in personal transformation and leadership. Abigail lives with her husband, Clive, and their children Iona and Jax on Lopez Island in the forests and on the beaches where she played as a child. Most mornings you can find her rambling the island with her silky black lab, Bella.