This workshop is free and open to the public (no Mushroom Fest pass required). Sign up at https://telluridelibrary.libcal.com/event/12439556Whether you just got excited about mushrooms last week or have been a fungiphile since the last millennium, there was a moment, a spark, that set you on fire. Join Alison Pouliot to get your spark mushroom* story on paper. That special experience you had as a child walking in the woods with an aunt, harvesting chicken of the woods, and finding it on your plate later. The moment you finished the article on mushroom remediation of oil spills and realized that mushrooms can save the planet. That perspective changing hike with a friend that led to a spiritual awakening. Come with a draft, or not, and spend a little time crafting your experience into a fine bit of creative nonfiction.
Alison Pouliot is an ecologist and environmental photographer with a focus on fungi. She is active in Australian and international fungal conservation and her writing and images appear in both academic and popular literature. Alison's fungus forays, which she conducts across both hemispheres, attract a range of people from foragers and philosophers to rangers and traditional owners. Her recent book The Allure of Fungi poses fundamental questions about human-fungus liaisons.
*with thanks to the birding community which coined the term Spark BirdSpark birdPart of speech: noun
Definition: a species that triggers a lifelong passion for birding.
Used in a sentence: For Tina, the handsome male frigatebird was her
spark bird—once she spied it, she vowed to never put her binoculars down again.
