UC, Cincy Parks pair up for outdoor writing series
Next Hike + Write celebrates Halloween, haunting, environment, memory
The annual Hike + Write series, developed through a collaboration between the University of Cincinnati department of English and Cincy Parks, gives participants the chance to write while exploring the outdoors.
With a Halloween theme, the next event takes place on Oct. 27 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in Eden Park, 950 Eden Park Drive. The group will explore the park’s memorial groves, an Ohio River overlook, and the gazebo allegedly haunted by the ghost of the wife of bootlegger George Remus, who met her untimely demise there.
This Hike + Write event will be hosted by Bryce Bullins, a UC PhD candidate with experience teaching about horror films and Gothic literature. Cincinnati Parks naturalist Lara Wardlow will lead a writing activity. The event will be focused on early works of American literature, gothic tradition, why nature inspires peace and fear and how natural spaces are used to create memories.
Writers enjoy the outdoors in UC's Hike + Write series. Credit/Provided
The Hike + Write series stemmed “from our appreciation for our parks and the inspiring folks who steward them,” said Michael Peterson, UC assistant professor of English and curator of the Elliston Poetry Collection.
Working with PhD candidate Maia Morgan, Peterson helped faculty poet Felicia Zamora organize an eco-lit community reading at the LaBoiteaux Woods Nature Preserve and Center in College Hill, which solidified their approach to the collaboration with Cincy Parks, Peterson said.
“We had a seed of a wilderness and writing idea already, we love the outdoors and reaching out beyond our campus boundaries has been fundamental to our mission but working with the Parks on this one was pivotal,” Peterson said. “In conversation with naturalist Lara Wardlow, we saw the potential for a long-lasting partnership that united their natural expertise with the creative and research passions of our UC community.”
The Eden Park Standpipe water tower. Credit/Provided
The Hike + Write series will take place in different Cincinnati parks throughout the semester.
“Stay tuned,” Peterson said. “We’re building new programs right now with Tikkun Farms in Mt. Healthy and October also sees the return of UC faculty author Michael Griffith’s literary ramble though historic Spring Grove Cemetery.”
The Halloween Hike + Write is free and open to the public, and tickets for the event can be reserved here.
Featured image at top: Forest at dusk. Credit/Stale Freyer from Pixabay.
By Hayley Garr
Student Journalist, A&S Department of Marketing and Communication
artscinews@ucmail.uc.edu
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