Ariel Gordon is a Winnipeg-based writer and community organizer. Her most recent books are Siteseeing: Writing Nature and Climate Across the Prairies (At Bay Press, 2023) and Fungal: Foraging in the Urban Forest (Wolsak @ Wynn, 2024). She also leads the Writes of Spring project, as part of National Poetry Month and the Winnipeg International Writers Festival and the Winnipeg Free Press, and is a poetry editor at The Goose: A Journal of Arts, Environment, and Culture in Canada. 

The Artwork

Gordon created a tree-focused writing workshop and non-fiction piece that addresses urban canopy cover, city trees, urban forests, and climate change impacts in urban areas. 

Gordon asked: Why are trees so good for cities; why are cities so bad for trees? 

The Reach

As part of her project, Gordon held two eco-anxiety forest walks in Winnipeg in October 2024, which saw 21 people attend over two days.

The forest walks included a series of writing prompt invitations for participants to try during the walk. Each writing prompt worked with, addressed or invoked eco-anxiety, and attempted to mitigate this state through forest-bathing techniques and suggestions of tangible climate change solutions at the municipal level and national level. 

The Resources

Gordon is now working on a creative non-fiction/poetry piece that addresses urban tree loss due to climate change. The piece will focus on the Lemay Forest, a privately-owned woodlot in Winnipeg that is under threat of development. 

Stay tuned for a regional and a national version of Gordon’s writing prompts.