This week, associate professor of biology and ecology Dr. David Bowne hosted “Writing your Place in Nature Event” in the High Library on Feb. 22. Students were able to listen to Bowne combine ecological processes in his short works of fiction.

The event started off with Bowne explaining how people have two views of nature. He showed a picturesque landscape, which many people think of when asked what nature is. In comparison, Bowne showed a picture of a barren plot of land in a neighborhood. “Nature writing is focused on the landscapes,” Bowne said. “But this is problematic because humans are a part of nature. There’s a disconnect between the everyday natural world. We should be encouraged to see nature in our everyday lives and not travel to see natural landscapes.”

Bowne moved on to discuss how readers typically see nature in literature. Nature usually takes the form of setting, character, theme or conflict in fiction. Human versus nature and human with nature are the two prominent conflicts. “Think ‘White Fang’ and ‘Moby Dick,’” Bowne said. “The blue people ‘Avatar’ movies have both these conflicts in the films.”

In creative nonfiction, nature is seen as the setting, a description, inspiration or reflection.

“When I write, I think of the purpose or the intention of the piece,” Bowne said. Most pieces are for entertainment, but others can educate, inspire, be a personal reflection or be a social commentary. “Nature can be a vehicle to describe something else.”

Bowne shared four of his works, two fiction and two creative nonfiction. His first creative nonfiction piece, “Flowing Through Time,” describes the life of a cattle pasture near Big Spring Run, just a few minutes off of campus. Bowne explained that he and several students have worked on the site to restore it to a wetland. He said he wrote the work to inspire and describe the beauty of wetland. The piece is currently in review with Ecotone.

The next creative nonfiction piece Bowne shared was “Pollination is Perversion.” The piece humorously explains how flowers have been seen as perverted and obscene through wordplay. This work was recently published to Thieving Magpie in December.

Bowne moved on to his fiction works. He started with “Rising Moana,” which falls under “clifi” or climate fiction. The piece focuses on a real estate realtor in Sea Isle City trying to build new beach front property. Set in the future where the coastline has heavily shifted, the story focuses on if man has the ability to change to the natural world. The piece was published back in 2019.

For Bowne’s final piece, he shared one he typically brings into his own classroom. “A Natural Process” focuses on a team of contractors working on developing houses on a mountain. A boulder ends up crashing into one of the houses and the blame is cast around the team. Bowne asks his students to agree with one of the characters and why. “A Natural Process” is published on the Ecological Society of America’s education website.

Bowne is currently working on a statistical story with the working title of “The Unknown Power of Taylor Swift.” He will focus on the near perfect correlation between Swift’s net growth and Bowne’s daughter’s height. Bowne also stated he is working on a novel. He ended the event, encouraging his audience to “Go out and write something.”