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Expanding into the Deep Now of Art and Lineage: A Writing Lab with Ian Ramsey

$50.00

As writers, we are all part of lineages. Who are the writers, artists, activists, and other species who have inspired you? Whose style and ideas have you learned from? This is a chance to fall back in love with the makers who first inspired you and to more deeply consider the art that moves you today. It’s also a chance to question your heroes from a place of more experience: what are the lessons-which might not be all positive- you can draw from them?

This lab guided by writer, educator, and outdoor athlete Ian Ramsey invites us to step back beyond the narrow-apertured drama of the current moment and to expand into a longer, deeper sense of time and history rooted in writing and ideas. Through a blend of readings, prompts, and conversation, we will expand our sense of self to include our artistic and activist ancestors, who might be contemporaries or might have lived a thousand years ago. Being connected to something larger helps to ground and root us in art and values and the cycles of history, and to give us perspective on the challenges and opportunities of the current moment. We will consider examples of writing as resistance, as hope, as testimony, as joy and love. Come ready to expand from the anxious, algorithmic present into the deep now of art and lineage. By hearkening back to the efforts of others, we can be more powerfully called to our own work.

Thursday, May 7, 2026
12:00-1:30 PM Central Time
Live online

As writers, we are all part of lineages. Who are the writers, artists, activists, and other species who have inspired you? Whose style and ideas have you learned from? This is a chance to fall back in love with the makers who first inspired you and to more deeply consider the art that moves you today. It’s also a chance to question your heroes from a place of more experience: what are the lessons-which might not be all positive- you can draw from them?

This lab guided by writer, educator, and outdoor athlete Ian Ramsey invites us to step back beyond the narrow-apertured drama of the current moment and to expand into a longer, deeper sense of time and history rooted in writing and ideas. Through a blend of readings, prompts, and conversation, we will expand our sense of self to include our artistic and activist ancestors, who might be contemporaries or might have lived a thousand years ago. Being connected to something larger helps to ground and root us in art and values and the cycles of history, and to give us perspective on the challenges and opportunities of the current moment. We will consider examples of writing as resistance, as hope, as testimony, as joy and love. Come ready to expand from the anxious, algorithmic present into the deep now of art and lineage. By hearkening back to the efforts of others, we can be more powerfully called to our own work.

Thursday, May 7, 2026
12:00-1:30 PM Central Time
Live online

This is a live, participatory lab and it will not be recorded. A meeting link will be emailed a few days prior to the lab. Cancellations must be made 48 hours prior to the lab and will be charged a $10 cancellation fee. Partial scholarships may be available. Apply here by 03/08/2026.

Ian Ramsey is the author of Hackable Animal, finalist for the Prism Climate Prize. His writing has been featured in Terrain.org, Orion, High Desert Journal, Backcountry Journal, Ploughshares, and many other journals, as well as in collections like The Gift of Animals, Writing for Peace, and Maine Voices. Based along the New Meadows River in midcoast Maine, Ian is the founding director of the Kauffmann Program for Environmental Writing at North Yarmouth Academy, where he has taught environmental writing, expeditioning, neuroscience and human performance, creative entrepreneurship, and music for 26 years. A licensed Maine Guide, Ian is an ultrarunner and backcountry athlete, holding the highest sea kayak leadership award in the world. He has led trips and backcountry expeditions on four continents, with a special focus on Alaska. He has lectured at Hirosaki University, Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Pacific Lutheran University, and been an artist-in-residence at the Mount Saint Helens Science Center and Bainbridge Arts Festival, among other places.