Place as Character
A Creative Writing Workshop
led by Esmé Kaplan-Kinsey

Sunday, 5 July 2026
14:00 - 16:30

at the Munich Readery

Workshop fee:
45€

with reduced rates available for students or in hardship cases

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In modern literature, particularly the Western canon,
place and ecosystem are often treated as backdrops to human activity rather than active forces within narratives.
This perspective, taken beyond literary contexts, constitutes a major concern when considering
the impacts of human activity on the environment.

In this workshop, we will explore what it means to use creative writing to increase our relational consciousness with the natural world.
What does it mean to write a story that assumes its environmental setting to be just as influential as its characters?
Might place itself have the potential to emerge as a narrative agent in its own right?

This workshop will include a group discussion as well as time to generate your own written pieces that address place as character.


Esmé Kaplan-Kinsey is a writer and a California transplant living in Munich, Germany,
where they are a Visiting Scholar at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society.
Their research focuses on human-nature relation, queer studies, ecofeminism, and place-based writing.
In their creative work, they strive to deconstruct binaries casting humankind in opposition to the natural world.
A 2026 Anthony Veasna So Scholar through the Adroit Journal and a Monarch Queer Literary Award winner,
their work appears in publications such as Split Lip, SmokeLong Quarterly,
and the Cincinnati Review. During their stay at the RCC, they are drafting their first novel.

To register for this workshop, send an email to store@themunichreadery.com

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