Writing from Nature

Chris Kinsey and Gillian Clarke

How does the natural world inspire and inform creative writing? How can writing about your natural surroundings enrich your writing, as well as your relationship with nature? This course, suitable for both beginners and experienced writers, will seek inspiration from the scenic, wooded surroundings of Gladstone’s Country park in Hawarden. An intensive 4 day course with Chris Kinsey starting: 2pm Thursday 6^th June 2013 to Sunday 1pm.

Chris Kinsey was BBC Wildlife Poet of the Year in 2008. She received an Arts Council of Wales Writer’s Bursary in 2000 and has had three collections of poetry published...... but, even more impressive, she is a previous winner of the Natur Cymru Inspired by Nature writing competition.

Gladstone’s Library in Hawarden is the UK’s only residential library. For more information on the course, including fees and fee waiver scheme, please visit:

http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/sell/lifelong-learning/en/sell/lifelong-learning

Nature Writing Course October 10-15, 2011

Nature writing is an attempt to draw together in one literary form the realms of science, art and personal memoir. What better place to reflect upon all these themes than in wild Wales and the glorious coastal landscapes of the Llŷn Peninsula. We will examine the natural forces that create this beautiful environment but we will also consider how you find a language to express encounters with living places and wild things. Outdoors and indoors, this is a course where your walking boots are as essential as your laptop.

The tutors are Nigel Brown and Mark Cocker.

Nigel is a Lecturer in Biological Sciences at Bangor University and curator of the University’s botanic garden. Nigel has both a professional and lifelong interest in natural history. He has lived in northwest Wales for four decades and cherishes the region’s rich variety of landscape and wildlife.

Mark is one of Britain’s foremost writers on nature and contributes regularly to The Guardian. His seven books include Birds Britannica and Crow Country, which was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize 2008 and won the New Angle Prize for Literature 2009. 

Residential: £525 (single); £300 (shared); Non-residential £275. 10% off for members of Naturalist Trusts or other nature and conservation groups. For further details contact Tŷ Newydd Writers’ Centre, Llanystumdwy, Cricieth, Gwynedd LL52 0LW 01766 522811 tynewydd@literaturewales.org

One of the students is the runner up in Natur Cymru’s Inspired by Nature writing competition.