Kathleen Dean Moore

Talks and Workshops

To schedule an event for Kathleen Dean Moore, please contact writer’s assistant Carol Mason at carol3568@comcast.net.

LECTURES, CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS, KEYNOTES

As a person who writes about the values and feelings that link us to the land, Moore is often called upon to speak to audiences of conservationists, ecologists, and others who love the land and the sea. Her audiences range from National Park Rangers and fisheries biologists to river activists, professional foresters, and young philosophers. Here is a sample of some of the talks she gives:

An Environmental Ethic of Care. "All ethics so far evolved," Aldo Leopold wrote, "rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts." This web of emotional and biological relationships calls for acts of commitment. Right ways of acting are those that nurture, enhance, and celebrate healthy webs of connection among all the members of the biotic community. "Sing our love for and obligation to the land," Leopold advised, and it's important to notice how quickly obligation follows on the heels of love.

The Second Premise: Our Obligation to the Future. When scientists told the world of the harms threatened by global climate change, they provided the first premise of an important argument. But scientific knowledge alone does not tell us what we ought to do or convince people to fulfill those obligations – as the scientists discovered to their intense frustration. The missing premise of the argument is outside of scientific purview, in the world of social and ethical values. We need to provide the important second premise: we have an obligation to leave to the future a world at least as rich in possibilities as the world that was left to us. From the combination of scientific facts and moral convictions, but from neither alone, a conclusion follows clearly and powerfully: we have an affirmative moral duty to take immediate steps to prevent or reduce the effects of climate change.

The Secular Sacred. I don’t believe in God. I don't practice a religion. But I believe that the natural world -- the world we prod and pollute and irradiate and pave -- is sacred. This claim has profound moral consequences. It closes the distance between what is and what ought to be. If this is the way the world is -- mysterious, beautiful, contingent, wonderful -- then this is how I ought to act in the world -- with gratitude, with caring, with joy, and with a profound sense of responsibility for its thriving.

Duets: The Music of Words. In a concert performance, Kathleen Moore, essayist, and Rachelle McCabe, pianist, explore the ways that music and the written word can speak to each other. "I can write about wonder or love, mystery or beauty, but the words are ink on the page," Moore says. "Then Rachelle goes to the piano and plays Bach or Schumann, and suddenly we don't need words any more." The concert weaves essays and music into a new sort of duet -- Bartok and blackbirds, Bach and nightfall, Simon and Garfunkel and a Seattle hotel.

The Moral Significance of Wonder.

This Must Remain: The Necessity of Wild Mountain Storms

The Roots are Burning: Toward a Culture of Place and Civic Engagement

The Moral Necessity of Ecological Restoration

Wild Comfort

WRITING WORKSHOPS

Kathleen has taught writing workshops in beautiful places, from the Apostle Islands to Homer, Alaska. Here are descriptions of some of the workshops she enjoys doing.

The Nature Essay: Practicing the Osprey’s Art. Here is how an osprey hunts: soaring over water, patiently watching. All she sees are surfaces, reflections on the riffles, the glistening pines. Then the angle of light changes, or the direction of the wind, and the osprey catches a glimpse of a shadow under the surface of the water. She tucks her wings and dives. So it is with the nature essay. A nature essay begins with patient, loving, informed observation of a particular location. Then it pursues a truth briefly revealed in that place. In this workshop, we will practice diving, the art of moving between experience and an exploration of its meaning.

The Writer in a World Gone Wrong. In a world of war and ecosystem collapse, many writers are reluctantly putting aside their novels or essays to write instead in the unfamiliar form of the political manifesto – Terry Tempest Williams, Wendell Berry, Barbara Kingsolver, David James Duncan, and many others. I’ve found myself in the same uncomfortable place, wanting to write about birdsong, but writing instead about birds with their wings on fire. How can a writer negotiate the competing demands of art and activism, hope and despair? What are the obligations of a writer in a world gone wrong?

Nature and Spirit: A Writing Workshop. Join Marcus Borg and Kathleen Dean Moore for a very special day-long writing workshop set amidst the quiet and beauty of the Oregon Coast Range. This is an intense workshop for experienced and aspiring writers who take inspiration from the natural world. Marc and Kathleen have planned a full day of writing and walking, reading and listening, with special attention to the sense of wonder that connects nature and spirit.

To Build a Fire. It is often said that what a writer needs most is time alone to think, to write, to agonize – the solitary writer walking snowy streets alone. Don’t believe it for a minute. Frank and I lived by ourselves in an isolated Northwoods cabin some time ago –- an experiment in the writing life. I learned to build a fire in a cookstove and revise text with my mittens on. But most important, I learned that I can no more write in isolation than build a fire with one log. A fire needs bundles of kindling and at least two logs to hold the heat, which is a lesson for any writer.
In this workshop, we explore and practice some of the ways that friends and colleagues can provide the spark and reflection a writer desperately needs, informally and in organized writing groups.

“ . . . just pay attention, then patch a few words together. . .” Mary Oliver's wonderful poem offers good advice for a writer and good advice for a teacher. In this workshop, we’ll explore how we can use quick, informal writing exercises to bring students into closer awareness of the natural world. Then, how can we design writing experiences that transform that awareness into gratitude and caring?



			Talks and Workshops To schedule an event for Kathleen Dean Moore, please contact writer’s assistant Carol Mason at carol3568@comcast.net. LECTURES, CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS, KEYNOTES As a person who writes about the values and feelings that link us to the land, Moore is often called upon to speak to audiences of conservationists, ecologists, and others who love the land and the sea. Her audiences range from National Park Rangers and fisheries biologists to river activists, professional foresters, and young philosophers. Here is a sample of some of the talks she gives: An Environmental Ethic of Care. "All ethics so far evolved," Aldo Leopold wrote, "rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts." This web of emotional and biological relationships calls for acts of commitment. Right ways of acting are those that nurture, enhance, and celebrate healthy webs of connection among all the members of the biotic community. "Sing our love for and obligation to the land," Leopold advised, and it's important to notice how quickly obligation follows on the heels of love. The Second Premise: Our Obligation to the Future. When scientists told the world of the harms threatened by global climate change, they provided the first premise of an important argument. But scientific knowledge alone does not tell us what we ought to do or convince people to fulfill those obligations – as the scientists discovered to their intense frustration. The missing premise of the argument is outside of scientific purview, in the world of social and ethical values. We need to provide the important second premise: we have an obligation to leave to the future a world at least as rich in possibilities as the world that was left to us. From the combination of scientific facts and moral convictions, but from neither alone, a conclusion follows clearly and powerfully: we have an affirmative moral duty to take immediate steps to prevent or reduce the effects of climate change. The Secular Sacred. I don’t believe in God. I don't practice a religion. But I believe that the natural world -- the world we prod and pollute and irradiate and pave -- is sacred. This claim has profound moral consequences. It closes the distance between what is and what ought to be. If this is the way the world is -- mysterious, beautiful, contingent, wonderful -- then this is how I ought to act in the world -- with gratitude, with caring, with joy, and with a profound sense of responsibility for its thriving. Duets: The Music of Words. In a concert performance, Kathleen Moore, essayist, and Rachelle McCabe, pianist, explore the ways that music and the written word can speak to each other. "I can write about wonder or love, mystery or beauty, but the words are ink on the page," Moore says. "Then Rachelle goes to the piano and plays Bach or Schumann, and suddenly we don't need words any more." The concert weaves essays and music into a new sort of duet -- Bartok and blackbirds, Bach and nightfall, Simon and Garfunkel and a Seattle hotel. The Moral Significance of Wonder. This Must Remain: The Necessity of Wild Mountain Storms The Roots are Burning: Toward a Culture of Place and Civic Engagement The Moral Necessity of Ecological Restoration Wild Comfort WRITING WORKSHOPS Kathleen has taught writing workshops in beautiful places, from the Apostle Islands to Homer, Alaska. Here are descriptions of some of the workshops she enjoys doing. The Nature Essay: Practicing the Osprey’s Art. Here is how an osprey hunts: soaring over water, patiently watching. All she sees are surfaces, reflections on the riffles, the glistening pines. Then the angle of light changes, or the direction of the wind, and the osprey catches a glimpse of a shadow under the surface of the water. She tucks her wings and dives. So it is with the nature essay. A nature essay begins with patient, loving, informed observation of a particular location. Then it pursues a truth briefly revealed in that place. In this workshop, we will practice diving, the art of moving between experience and an exploration of its meaning. The Writer in a World Gone Wrong. In a world of war and ecosystem collapse, many writers are reluctantly putting aside their novels or essays to write instead in the unfamiliar form of the political manifesto – Terry Tempest Williams, Wendell Berry, Barbara Kingsolver, David James Duncan, and many others. I’ve found myself in the same uncomfortable place, wanting to write about birdsong, but writing instead about birds with their wings on fire. How can a writer negotiate the competing demands of art and activism, hope and despair? What are the obligations of a writer in a world gone wrong? Nature and Spirit: A Writing Workshop. Join Marcus Borg and Kathleen Dean Moore for a very special day-long writing workshop set amidst the quiet and beauty of the Oregon Coast Range. This is an intense workshop for experienced and aspiring writers who take inspiration from the natural world. Marc and Kathleen have planned a full day of writing and walking, reading and listening, with special attention to the sense of wonder that connects nature and spirit. To Build a Fire. It is often said that what a writer needs most is time alone to think, to write, to agonize – the solitary writer walking snowy streets alone. Don’t believe it for a minute. Frank and I lived by ourselves in an isolated Northwoods cabin some time ago –- an experiment in the writing life. I learned to build a fire in a cookstove and revise text with my mittens on. But most important, I learned that I can no more write in isolation than build a fire with one log. A fire needs bundles of kindling and at least two logs to hold the heat, which is a lesson for any writer. In this workshop, we explore and practice some of the ways that friends and colleagues can provide the spark and reflection a writer desperately needs, informally and in organized writing groups. “ . . . just pay attention, then patch a few words together. . .” Mary Oliver's wonderful poem offers good advice for a writer and good advice for a teacher. In this workshop, we’ll explore how we can use quick, informal writing exercises to bring students into closer awareness of the natural world. Then, how can we design writing experiences that transform that awareness into gratitude and caring?

		Copyright © 2008 Kathleen Dean Moore