'ART OF THE WILD' WRITING WORKSHOP RESUMES THIS SUMMER A writing workshop held near what Mark Twain called "a sea of royal seclusion guarded by a cordon of sentinel peaks" -- Lake Tahoe -- returns this year after a one-year hiatus. Called "Art of the Wild," the environment- and human ecology-focused program brings aspiring and published writers together at Squaw Valley for a week of workshops, presentations and nature walks. Among the published writers who will help lead the program this year will be authors Pam Houston, Maxine Hong Kingston and Louis Owens, and UC Davis' own Pulitzer prize-winning poet Gary Snyder. Other UC Davis faculty members who will participate include Francisco Alarcon, Sandra McPherson, Jack Hicks and Alan Williamson. "The interests and purposes of participants vary, ranging from environmentalists who dramatize the glories of -- and threats to -- wilderness in a poem or an article, to writers wishing to evoke a stronger sense of place or dramatize a bioregion in their stories," says Hicks, director of the UC Davis graduate creative writing program and Art of the Wild coordinator. The program emphasizes scientific literacy -- as a valuable aid in writing about the natural world -- from optional daybreak nature walks to afternoon and evening seminars, field studies and special presentations by scientists of the Sierra and Lake Tahoe. This year for the first time, even those who do not consider themselves writers may participate in a new portion of the program geared especially for educators, scholars, activists and nature enthusiasts, Hicks says. Limited to 15 participants, the nonwriting program offers sessions with naturalists and scientists, as well as combined meetings with the writers. Co-sponsors of Art of the Wild this year are the 30th Annual Squaw Valley Community of Writers, UC Davis' John Muir Institute and the campus as a whole. The program will take place July 9-16, with applications due by May 15. For information contact Jack Hicks, UC Davis English department, (530) 752-2257 or (530) 752-1658.