By Julia Watt, LSWA Creative Mentor
A self-identified “accidental activist,” Alison Swan is a Mesa Refuge writer’s residency fellow and co-winner of the Petoskey Prize for Grassroots Environmental Leadership. Her work in creative writing and environmentalism spans decades and the nation; however, she finds herself drawn to Michigan, noting that “the Great Lakes have a hold on me.” Her work in Michigan includes teaching at Western Michigan University’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability for fourteen years, and starting the Eco Book Club at Literati Bookstore. Swan is the second artist featured in LSWA’s Arts and Sustainability Speaker Series, which is partially funded by the LSA Year of Sustainability Incentives and Innovations Fund.
Swan started her presentation by applauding the LSWA community for its roots in art for art’s sake, stressing the importance of “creative practice that is not linked to the marketplace.” She outlined what she’d be talking about that evening: “writing, reading books, and of course Nature with a capital N — central to my creative practice.” She then guided students through her creative process by reading select pieces from her impressive repertoire of work, then describing their impetus and inspiration. She also talked through the prompts she used to craft each piece. Students received their own copies of her selected poems and related prompts, which Swan encouraged them to work on later in a setting without distractions so that their minds could be fully present with the words on the page.
One poem she read, “Night Train,” is featured with its accompanying prompt to the right. It’s the second piece in her recently published collection, A Fine Canopy. Swan’s work on this poem began as a reflection on the sound of a passing train, leading her to consider how humans — and all living creatures — have to live somewhere. She believes we need to learn from the more-than-human inhabitants of our shared planet.
In concluding her talk, Swan reflected on the inspiration she draws from the work of environmentalist and Beat generation poet Gary Snyder: “Go out and be with nature. And nature could be a houseplant. It doesn’t have to be the woods.”
