This June week in northwestern Illinois, we will cycle from park to park, sleep in tents, encounter trees and bugs and rivers and sky.Some might describe this activity in the following way: ‘we are getting back to nature.’

But if we are getting back to nature, what exactly are we getting back to? And why would we be getting back to it instead of, say, finding it anew? And why, in any case, would we want to do such a thing?

Velosophie 2009 will revolve around these and similar questions, and, as usual, will consider these questions through the lens of some excellent literature. These stories, poems, and essays will open up conversations about nature in many of its forms: benign and beautiful nature, fit for a postcard; threatening, uncontrollable nature, from which we seek shelter; and, most of all, the nature within us, wild or not.

Up for discussion tonight is James Salter‘s, Solo Faces.

There is a $25 application fee for Velosophie, in addition to the cost of the GITAP ride. For more information, please contact Ryan Lewis at 312.422.5580.