Willamette Writers on the River in Corvallis Presents

The English Language Has a Nature Problem

with Julia Corbett

The Corvallis Chapter of Willamette Writers invites people to an in-person and virtual presentation of “The English Language Has a Nature Problem” with author and emerita professor Julia Corbett. The English language reinforces a human-dominated culture that disconnects and separates humans from all that is not human. A handsome fox crossing the road is a “that,” not a “who,” and a centuries-old sequoia is an “it.” We have made progress on more inclusive language for diverse groups of people, but not for the language we use for all that surrounds us and keeps us alive. This presentation will contrast the “grammar of animacy” in Indigenous languages with the subject-object orientation and linguistic patterns in English. Then we will practice ways to build a more inclusive language.

The meeting is on Monday, April 24, and begins at 6:30 PM in the Oak Room at the Corvallis Community Center, 2601 NW Tyler Ave. Masks are still required for our meetings. For those attending the online presentation, the Zoom room will open at 6:15 PM for networking. For information on how to log in, go to the Willamette Writers Event Calendar at http://www.willamettewriters.org/event. The online version will not be recorded. Please read Zoom Details below and register for this event here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMofu-qrDwqHdHAGoIf9GGNnQ7MxzN2Wgtc

About Julia Corbett

Julia Corbett relocated to Corvallis in 2021 when she retired as an Emerita Professor in Communication and Environmental Humanities at the University of Utah. She has authored four books about human relationships with the living world. Out of the Woods: Seeing Nature in the Everyday was the winner of the 2018 Reading the West Book Award in Nonfiction. Her most recent book is Communicating the Climate Crisis: New Directions for Facing What Lies Ahead, released in paperback in 2022. Before receiving her Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota, she was a reporter, a naturalist, and a natural resources information officer. She summers in her mountain cabin in west-central Wyoming.

About your chapter meetings

Willamette Writers meetings are open to all writers, 18 and up. Guests are welcome to make a donation to help support the cost of the meeting (we believe in paying our speakers for their time and skills). This meeting is run by volunteers. We look forward to seeing you there!

Young writers are encouraged to join our Young Willamette Writers meetings. Sign Up! Any high school or middle-grade writers are welcome to join us. Sign up for our email list at: http://eepurl.com/hRubBf  A registration link will be sent to our email list before our next meeting.

MASKING: Willamette Writers continues to require mask-wearing at our in-person, indoor meetings. If you are unable to mask, we invite you to join us at one of our online Chapter Meetings. Here is a link to our policies.

Zoom Details

You have to be logged into your own personal Zoom account to attend this meeting (to create a FREE account, go to Zoom.us).

Once you are logged in to your own personal zoom account, register for the meeting in the link provided above.

On the day of the meeting, log into your Zoom account and then click the link zoom sent you in your email when you registered with the link above. If you are logged into your personal zoom account, you can also click the link above and register again if you need to. If you have not done this before, we encourage you to try logging in a half hour before the meeting begins. We had to change our meeting access because of a few inappropriate guests, but we want to continue to keep our meetings open to the public.