“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately . . . and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
– Henry David Thoreau, Walden

How does going to “the woods” lead to a meaningful life—the sense that we have truly lived? We have a remarkable opportunity to explore this idea for ourselves in the very woods Thoreau went to, one of the most iconic terrains in history. In the Walden Woods Thoreau made so famous through his memoir, starting from his Farmhouse birth room, we will walk in Thoreau’s shoes, literally in the woods in which he found his purpose and legacy in writing, and metaphorically as we discover our own inner Walden and purpose. By going to this Workshop’s “Woods” to write, this is a time you give yourself, to act deliberately, to honor your own identity as a writer, and through the Workshop’s Thoreau’s word prompts, to engage with yourself as an extraordinary being with “more lives to live.”

Dr. Barbara Mossberg is a prizewinning teacher and memoirist on the page and stage and in the air, with recent books (Here for the Present, A Grammar of Happiness in the Present Imperfect, Live from the Poet’s Perch, and Sometimes the Woman in the Mirror Is Not You, and other hopeful news postings), in poetry, essays, one-woman plays, and radio and podcast programs. Actor, playwright, dramaturg, literary scholar, diplomat, and California laureate/city poet in residence, Barbara is Professor of Practice, Clark Honors College at the University of Oregon.Dr. Mossberg will host an informal gathering for greeting the group on the evening before this workshop, Friday, September 9, from 7-9pm.

Saturday, September 10 – 9am-6pm (with breaks)
9:00 am – 12:00 pm Workshop Instruction at Thoreau Farmhouse
2:00 pm – 4:00pm Walking Like a Camel “solitude field trips” at Walden Pond
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm Group Journal Field Reports

Sunday, September 11 – 9am-1pm
9:00 am – 12:00 pm Workshop Instruction at Thoreau Farmhouse
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm Conclusion and Farewell

Limited to 12 people.