On October 19, you can sign up here https://poetsforscience.org/gathering-2026/schedule/ for a FUN and collaborative collage experience with Doug and Melissa and Cathy.
The Forest For The Trees For The World
Cathy Wittmeyer, Doug Van Gundy, and Melissa Thomas-Van Gundy
About the Session
The room will dig into forest science and how to write/create as a scientific process. A forester will highlight interesting props from the forest and explain phenomena like seed serotiny, lichen symbiosis, soil science, and bryology. The three will lead generative writing exercises and make a community forest collage piece for a 3 minute performance at the open mic. We’ll be writing and moving and discussing and collaborating around the scientific/poetic process: observe, ask a question, make a hypothesis, test your hypothesis, draw a conclusion, share. We’ve only got an hour so let’s get into our experiment!
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Doug Van Gundy directs the Low-Residency MFA program in Creative Writing at West Virginia Wesleyan College. His poems, essays and reviews have appeared in many journals, including Poetry, Poets & Writers and The Oxford American. He is co-editor Eyes Glowing at the Edge of the Woods: Contemporary Writing from West Virginia and the author of a book of poems, A Life above Water. He lives in West Virginia.
Melissa Thomas-Van Gundy is a research forester with the US Forest Service specializing in forest restoration, sustainable management, and historical forest ecology, particularly in the Appalachian region. She holds degrees in pre-forestry and forest resources and works on stand- and landscape-level projects.
Cathy Wittmeyer hosts Word to Action, a climate action writing retreat in the Alps since 2020. She has her BS in environmental engineering, her JD, and her MFA in poetry. Editor of the anthology: Eden is a Backyard from EditionEupalinos, her work has appeared in Cherry Tree, Attached to the Living World, Artemis Journal, Allium, The Writer’s Chronicle, The Journal of Law and Science and others.
https://poetsforscience.org/session/the-forest-for-the-trees-for-the-world/