Leading U.S. nature writers and poets will gather later this month in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the connection between American writers and the natural world during a conference titled "Watershed: Writers, Nature and Community." Among those participating will be two UC Davis faculty members: Gary Snyder, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, and Jack Hicks, director of the UC Davis Creative Writing Program and director of the summer writing program "Art of the Wild." Snyder will talk during several panel discussions and read from his works. Hicks will moderate a panel titled "Teaching the Arts and the Environment," at which Snyder will be a participant. The public is invited to the April 15-20 conference by Poet Laureate and UC Berkeley professor Robert Hass, The Orion Society and The Library of Congress. Part of the conference's significance, Hicks says, is the chance it offers "to emphasize, to generate, to kindle an interest in nature and writing within elementary to high school students. We hope to use this conference as an occasion to stimulate interest all along the spectrum in various educational endeavors."