Literature of Place, Houskeeper, Spring 2026

Course Number:	Graduate: EDX 5710 S43, Undergraduate: EDX 4710 S43
Instructor:	Peter Houskeeper, M.A.
Location:	In-person and Online
Dates and Times:	Mar 07, 2026 - May 17, 2026. This course will include 4 mandatory in-person days (40 hours), plus an additional hours of hybrid instruction between the two weekend course blocks.
Credits:	3 Graduate or Undergraduate Credits
Tuition:	Set by and payable to educational partner The Willowell Foundation

Course Description

The relationship between place and literature are entwined, from Greek and Hindu epics to The Bible. This course will trace cross-cultural expressions of place from Tang Poets, to Zen Masters, Indigenous Tales, to the Romantics, from New England’s Transcendentalists, to Berry, hooks, Snyder, Leopold and Dillard. These strands of expansive outreach to “place” are still evident in contemporary literature, poetry and writing, wrapped in the foothills of the Green Mountains. In addition to classic works of literature and prose, Vermont Poets, including Hayden Caruth, Grace Paley, Ruth Stone, Bianca Stone, Robert Frost, Galway Kinnell, David Budbill, and more will show how the place we call home unifies both the particular and the universal.

This class will include several daylong seminars at The Willowell Foundation in Monkton, as well as hybrid in-person and remote learning during non-teaching hours. Students will be encouraged to create a body of texts and techniques they might share in the classroom to connect literature to the ecology of their community.

NOTE: This course can be taken as part of a series of courses that lead to a certificate in Place-Based Education.

Audience:

This course is open to educators at all levels, though particularly relevant to teachers of language arts, who are interested in broadening their knowledge of the ideological and practical principles of place as a driving force of the creation, interpretation and impacts of literature.

Registration: More course information is provided below. You can register directly through the Willowell website or by clicking on the registration link at the bottom of this page.

Course Goals & Objectives

Course Goals:

define through example, the guiding principles of “place” as modulators of meaningful and lasting education
reexamine and expand on methods of teaching language arts through unifying deep study of literature with the contextual elements of its creation (nature, society, self)
strengthen personal, professional and societal connective channels through writing, inquiry and discussion

Course Objectives: Participants will:

work with professional writers and seasoned educators in an outdoor setting
develop mentorship opportunities
experience first-hand, the efficacy of utilizing “place” as both teacher and curriculum guide
develop and draw from a cohort of educators trained in emergent and place-based curriculum

Course Schedule

Weekend 1: “ Mapping Self & Place” and “Land Pedagogy” at Willowell

Tentative Readings: Henry David Thoreau, selections from Walden and Walking; Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature”; Whitman selections from Leaves of Grass; bell hooks, Earthbound: On Solid Ground; Kimmerer, selections from Braiding Sweetgrass; Annie Proulx’s “The Corn Woman, Her Husband, and Their Child”; Abenaki story of Corn Woman, her husband, and their child
Assignments: place-based autobiography, reading and discussion, reflective journals.

Weekend 2: “Literary Fieldwork & Critical Response” and “Place-Based Curriculum”

Tentative Readings: Stone, The Essential Ruth Stone excerpts; Bianca Stone, selections from The Mobius Strip Club of Grief; Hayden Carruth, selections from North Winter; David Budbill, from Moment to Moment; Gary Snyder, selections from The Practice of the Wild; Wendell Berry, selections from Earth Ending Fire
Assignments: reading and discussion, text-in-place analysis, group-design a mini-unit (2–3 lesson outlines) that integrate place-based literature into a K–12 curriculum.

Required Readings/Resources

Required Readings may not be included in course tuition. Contact Willowell directly for more information.

Thoreau, H. D. (1854). Walden; or, Life in the Woods. Ticknor and Fields.

Thoreau, H. D. (1862). Walking. The Atlantic Monthly, June issue.

Emerson, R. W. (1836). Nature. James Munroe and Company.

Whitman, W. (1855). Leaves of Grass. Self-published.

Hooks, b. (2009). Earthbound: On Solid Ground. In Belonging: A Culture of Place. Routledge.

Kimmerer, R. W. (2013). Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. Milkweed Editions.

Proulx, A. (2025). The Corn Woman, Her Husband, and Their Child. The New Yorker, August 18 issue.

Abenaki oral tradition. Corn Woman, Her Husband, and Their Child. Retold in Vermont Indigenous storytelling archives. (Unpublished; shared via oral transmission).

Stone, R. (2016). The Essential Ruth Stone (B. Stone, Ed.). Copper Canyon Press.

Stone, B. (2018). The Möbius Strip Club of Grief. Tin House.

Carruth, H. (1964). North Winter. The Prairie Press.

Budbill, D. (1999). Moment to Moment: Poems of a Mountain Recluse. Copper Canyon Press.

Snyder, G. (2004). The Practice of the Wild: Essays. Shoemaker & Hoard.

Berry, W. (2018). The World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry (P. Kingsnorth, Ed.). Counterpoint Press.

For additional course information:

Peter Houskeeper

(802) 377-7723

For additional registration information

Center for Schools Team (802) 468-1325