I’m afraid this post must be a shameless piece of self-promotion. Forgive me.

This is my goddess, M.F.K. Fisher (1908-1992) at work in her last kitchen, in Glen Ellen, California.

I will be teaching what I hope will be a lively class on Mary Francis (she did write a book with this title, by the way) as the first in a four-session seminar in April and May in the Landscape Architecture Program at UCLA Extension. I will take a multi-perspective in-depth look at four special, extremely varied, but fascinating literary gardeners: M.F.K. Fisher, Anton Chekhov, Edith Wharton, and California writer Mary Austin.

I’ve written about gardens and landscapes for the L.A. Times and the New York Times and am the author, among other books, of Cultivating Words: The Guide to Writing About the Plants and Gardens You Love. I’ve taught writing at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens; the Getty Center, The L.A. County Arboretum, the New York Botanical Garden, Boston University and a lot of other places.

If any have questions or want to discuss the seminar or see the syllabus, please leave me a message!

From the UCLA Extension catalog:

Making Space: Four Writers. Four Landscapes, Four Passions
X472.89 Architecture 2 units

Creating a space of one’s own is a fundamental human need, The course explores the arc of early-to-mid 20th-century literary connections among place, landscape, and gardens. Join Paula Panich, writer, teacher, gardener and landscape observer for a series of seminars examining M.F.K. Fisher, Anton Chekhov, Edith Wharton and California writer Mary Austin. Gain insight into the places where we live and places alive in memory. Tea (and other things!) will be served,

Registration # W3489B

$325 through March 16; $359 thereafter.

Dates: April 16 and 30; May 14 and 21.

Time: 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Location: 1010 Westwood Center, Room 413
Los Angeles

To register: Call Andrea Swanson: 310.825.9414
Or e-mail: aswanson@uclaextension.edu