Scents and Sensibility: Elevate Your Writing with the Power of Scent

"Our cerebral hemispheres were originally buds from the olfactory stalks. We think because we smelled."
—Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses Writers often lavish attention on what characters see and hear, while overlooking one of our most evocative senses: smell. Yet scent has a remarkable ability to summon memory, create atmosphere, and transport both writer and reader into a vividly realized world. In this interactive workshop, we'll explore how to write compelling sensory descriptions by building a richer vocabulary for scent. Together we'll investigate the fragrance of the natural world—from rain on dry earth and sun-warmed hay to forest loam, saddle leather, herbs, flowers, and citrus—and discover how great writers, from Marcel Proust to Keith Richards, use scent to create unforgettable moments on the page. Along the way, you'll sharpen your powers of observation, cultivate greater awareness of the scents that surround us every day, and develop new tools for writing poetry, fiction, memoir, or personal essays with greater depth and immediacy. By paying closer attention to the scents of everyday life, we'll also discover new sources of wonder and inspiration that can enrich both our writing and our daily experience. Writers of all experience levels and genres are welcome.