Byron Writers Festival 2022
Nature Writing
This hands-on nature writing workshop, taught by award-winning author, Dr Inga Simpson, explores a range of techniques for writing more ecologically. Not just conveying an environmental message, but breaking down the barriers between the human and more-than-human worlds and the limitations of an anthropocentric viewpoint. Through discussion of key examples and a range of practical exercises, we’ll explore ways of engaging readers’ emotions and discover the creative potential of research. We’ll also examine the notion of authenticity and the intersection of inner and outer landscapes to immerse the reader (and writer) in the natural world. Participants will be provided with a short reading beforehand for discussion on the day. Suitable for writers of fiction and non-fiction at all levels.
Date: Thursday 25 August
Time: 10am — 4pm
Where: Habitat, Meeting Room 1, 1 Porter Street, Byron Bay
Cost: $145 General / $110 Members & Students
About the Facilitator
Inga Simpson is the author of The Last Woman in the World (Hachette, Nov 2021), Mr Wigg, Nest, Where the Trees Were, Understory: my life with trees and, for children, The Book of Australian Trees, illustrated by Alicia Rogerson. Inga’s novels have been short and longlisted for numerous awards, including the Miles Franklin and Stella Prize, while Understory was shortlisted for the Adelaide Writers Week award for nonfiction. Inga was also the winner of the Eric Rolls nature writing prize for her essay “Triangulation.”
Inga has PhDs in creative writing and English literature, with her most recent thesis exploring the history of Australian nature writing. Her short stories and essays have been published in Wonderground, Chicago Quarterly Review, Review of Australian Fiction, Griffith Review, Clues, Writing Queensland, and The Dictionary of Literary Biography.
Her first career was as a professional writer and researcher, including for federal Parliament and the Commonwealth Ombudsman.
Inga grew up in central west NSW, and has lived in Canberra, Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast hinterland. She has now settled on the far south coast of NSW.
Her next novel, Willowman, will be published in early November 2022.