Courses & Workshops
The intention to create a sanctuary begins with the recognition that the land, plants, trees, water, air, and light, are all sacred. Everything is sacred including the oasis of our balcony, our neighbors’ yards, the trees at the local park, and all the nearby trails that snake over hills and mountains and past waterways.
A Winter Exploration:
Nature-Inspired Writing & Expressive Art
3-Zoom Meetings
Tuesdays - January 13, 20, 27, 2026
We are Nature and so like all things in the natural world, we are sensitive to the shifts in weather, light, and temperature. As we approach the Winter Solstice (12/21/25), when the days are shorter, Nature calls us to slow down, rest, and replenish in the darkness of the long winter nights.
The word “darkness” can mean the absence of light, a feeling of despair or grief, a lack of knowing, extinction, and even death, but this restorative time of year is also fertile ground for our imagination.
In this 3-part nature-inspired writing workshop and visual experimentation, we will gently open ourselves up to what is dormant and what is preparing to be reborn.
Participants will be led in mindfulness practices, visualizations, generative writing prompts, and expressive art exercises like collage, palimpsest or layered writing, and visual poetry. There will be time for discussion and sharing.
All levels are welcome. Whether you call yourself a writer, artist, or neither, this workshop invites you to take a leap to uncover or stoke your inner creative fire for 2026! Our time together is about fun; not perfection.
Place: Zoom
Time: 3 to 6 PM PST - Each workshop will be 3-hours long with ample time to create.
Dates:
#1 - January 13 - Navigating the Darkness in the Imaginal Realm
#2 - January 20 - Turning Inward: Hibernation & Reflection
#3 - January 27 - The Potential of the Bare Landscape
Price: Each workshop $45 / All three workshops $120.
✺Partial scholarships available.
In Partnership with UCSD Division of Extended Studies
Forms of Poetry
Winter 2026
6-week asynchronous course
Christina is a standout instructor, as indicated by the five-star rating. Christina demonstrates care and concern for students' well-being outside of class and works with students to accommodate their needs with understanding, flexibility, and compromise.
– UCSD Div. of Extended Studies student
more testimonials
Amy Lowell wrote, “No one expects a man to make a chair without first learning how, but there is a popular impression that the poet is born, not made, and that his verses burst from his overflowing heart of themselves.
As a matter of fact, the poet must learn his trade in the same manner, and with the same painstaking care,
as the cabinet-maker.”
Let’s look at poetry from a designer’s perspective. As a designer of poetry, we are charged with creating works of beauty that sometimes fall within certain parameters such as: What does this “space” need? What do I want to “say” here? What are my materials? In this course, students will address the design qualities of a poem by experimenting with forms like the sonnet, ballad, ode, haiku, and villanelle.
Level: No previous experience required.
History: I've been teaching this course since 2015.
Course Number: WCWP-40308 Credit: 2.00 units
Certificate Programs: Creative Writing
In Partnership with UCSD Division of Extended Studies
Nature Writing: The True Muse
Spring 2026
6-week asynchronous course
I LOVED this course. It is my favorite so far. Christina has a way of teaching the soul of writing, not just the rules. And the use of Nature as a guide brought out meaningful and imaginative stories I didn't even know I had in me. This class was educational and inspirational.
– UCSD Div. of Extended Studies student
more testimonials
As writers, we are the witness and voice of our time, and as such, we are invited to translate what we experience to share and celebrate with the generations to come.
This course invites you to develop your writing while reconnecting with Mother Nature, or as author Bill Plotkin says, "grow deeper into our human nature". We will immerse ourselves in the contemplations of writers who have spent their life close to the heartbeat of Mother Nature. Through the examples of their offerings, your own discoveries in the inner and outer composition of your landscapes, you will shape writing that reveals the joy, and sometimes heartache, of walking this Earth.
Inspiration will come from time in Nature and direct experience with all she offers us. We will reclaim our wild self and play with a variety of forms from poetry to prose to performance.
Level: No previous experience required.
History: I created this course in 2022.
Course Number: WCWP-40342 Credit: 2.00 units
Certificate Programs: Creative Writing
Sitka Center for Arts & Ecology
The Hollow Bone: A Writer’s Guide to Translating Earth’s Messages Through Loss, Grief, and Joy.
Summer 2026 / 3-day in-person workshop
In this nature-inspired writing workshop we will immerse ourselves in the landscape as a creative act to ignite our senses and intuition. When we engage with the natural world like taking time to feel the ocean air on our skin, hear bird calls across the landscape, pause near a Sitka spruce to inhale her healing essence, sense the alive Earth below our feet, and much more, our time in nature can inspire writing that helps us understand what isn’t always clear to us when we are sitting at our desk.
The truth is, we are Nature too, and therefore time with animals, plants, fungi, and the elements can sharpen our awareness of these key relationships and repair some of the separation that we are feeling. Collaborating with the natural world as our ecological self, the part of us who is in a compassionate relationship with other beings, can have remarkable outcomes. During our time together, we will hold space for the messages and support each other with deep listening and kind observations, connecting with each other over imagery and the gifts of sharing. This generative writing workshop will breathe new life into your work whether you are a poet, essayist, memoirist, novelist, journaler, or visual artist. Participants will be given prompts to inspire new writing in response to our discussion and provided readings on the topic. All levels welcome.
Location: Sitka Center for Arts & Ecology at 56605 Sitka Drive
Otis, OR 97368
Dates: Announced in January 2026
In Partnership with UCSD Division of Extended Studies
American Literature: Stories of Immigration
Fall 2026
6-week asynchronous course
Immigration is a national topic and has inspired heated debates, policy, protests, classes
like this one, films, songs, paintings, novels, poems and much more. Whether you are witness, participant, or a
child of an immigrant, you can likely agree that immigration has shaped our country and our understanding of our world in complex ways.
This course mostly centers on the immigration experience of those entering the United States and writing in
English. We’ll explore the ways that acclaimed authors, including Maxine Hong Kingston and Piri Thomas,
have used literature to express what it means to be an immigrant, or a child of immigrants. We will read
narratives now considered classics in the literature of immigration, as well as contemporary pieces, portraying
immigrant experiences from China, Japan, Russian Poland, Africa, and Latin America, to name just a few.
Through these texts we will investigate the ways that immigrant identity influences both the lives of those who
made the journey and the lives of their descendants.
No previous experience required
Course Number: LIT-40022
Certificate Programs: Creative Writing
In Partnership with UCSD Division of Extended Studies
Forms of Poetry
Summer 2026
6-week asynchronous course
Christina is a standout instructor, as indicated by the five-star rating. Christina demonstrates care and concern for students' well-being outside of class and works with students to accommodate their needs with understanding, flexibility, and compromise.
– UCSD Div. of Extended Studies student
more testimonials
Amy Lowell wrote, “No one expects a man to make a chair without first learning how, but there is a popular impression that the poet is born, not made, and that his verses burst from his overflowing heart of themselves.
As a matter of fact, the poet must learn his trade in the same manner, and with the same painstaking care,
as the cabinet-maker.”
Let’s look at poetry from a designer’s perspective. As a designer of poetry, we are charged with creating works of beauty that sometimes fall within certain parameters such as: What does this “space” need? What do I want to “say” here? What are my materials? In this course, students will address the design qualities of a poem by experimenting with forms like the sonnet, ballad, ode, haiku, and villanelle.
Level: No previous experience required.
History: I've been teaching this course since 2015.
Course Number: WCWP-40308 Credit: 2.00 units
Certificate Programs: Creative Writing
Recently Offered
Remembering Our Place in the Sacred Circle of Life
6-Zoom Meetings
Dates to Announced
Christina is a gifted teacher who nurtures the growth of her students with an attentive sensitivity and supportive inquiry. Each week she revealed a new facet of nature-connection that focused our creative energies in the sacred flow of all things. Her guidance and feedback allowed me to gain confidence in my writing and I thoroughly enjoyed the concepts and writing she presented as well as the class.
– Regan Stacey (Spring 2024)
more testimonials >
During six, 2-hour workshop sessions, we will read poetry, prose, and essays that touch on the magnificence of Mother Earth.
The aim of the class is to be inspired by your ventures into Nature, the selected reading, and our discussions.
Your writing practice will be nourished by your deepening relationship with the natural world. We will also explore how artistic acts like writing, painting, sculpting, singing, playing music, cooking, baking, gardening, etc., are prayers towards healing and opportunities to share our heart-based creations.
*This course has been running since 2021
All Levels Welcome
Format: Virtual 2-hour Zoom class
Dates: To be Announced
Class size: Limit to 10
Writing in Rhythm with the Spiral of Life
3-Zoom Meetings
Dates to Be Announced
From seed to sprout to flower to fruiting body to withering leaves and welcomed rest, all living organisms trust the transitions and transformations of their body’s story. We can learn a lot from the natural world–our wise elders and relatives–about the path of becoming and dissolving.
Join me in this generative 3-day nature-inspired writing series to explore the meaning, influence, and inspiration of bearing witness to the patterns of the living world. During each class, participants will be guided in rich exercises including, mindfulness, visualizations, exploratory writing, and supported sharing.
Whether you are a poet, essayist, memoirist, novelist, journaler, or visual artist, your art will take on new life in this supportive container of like-hearted people. All levels welcome.
#1 - October 21 - Birth
#2 - October 28 - Flourishing
#3 - November 4 - Death
Where: Zoom
When: Dates to be Announced
Time: 4 PM to 6 PM PST / 7 PM to 9 PM EST
Duration: 2 hours each
Price: $30 per class or $75 to attend all three -
Pay via: Venmo, Paypal, Zelle, or personal check.
