Environmental Nonfiction: New short course

Newcastle Writers Festival and The University of Newcastle’s School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences are collaborating to offer a month-long intensive creative writing short course from 3 to 21 May.

The course is designed for writers eager to explore narrative nonfiction as a means of engaging with the environment, balancing artistry with advocacy and invites aspiring authors to reflect on their interactions with the natural world through a personal lens, while navigating the complex intersections of subjective experience and objective realities such as climate change, capitalism, and colonisation.

The course will be led by Keri Glastonbury (Newcastle Sonnets) and includes special guests Joanna Atherfold Finn (Plastic Free: The inspiring story of a global movement and why it matters), James Bradley (Deep Water: The World in the Ocean), and Lauren Fuge (Voyagers: Our journey into the anthropocene).

This intensive course will focus on participants developing and workshopping a short eco-memoir or eco-essay, as well as responding to set weekly writing prompts based on each of the author’s books. Each week there will be an opportunity to engage with published writers. A Port Stephens coastal walk led by Joanna Atherfold Finn is also included.

Attendees can attend the workshops via Zoom.

There will be emphasis placed on your reading of the three texts so allow time for that or get in early and read before the course begins. There will also be practical workshopping with your fellow participants. Short exercises should be completed before the three Saturday workshops, so you’ll need some time during the week as well to focus on writing. By engaging with writers, and with the guidance of the course facilitator, Keri Glastonbury, the course aims to develop a feedback loop of ‘reading into writing’.

Required reading:​

• Joanna Atherfold Finn Plastic Free: The inspiring story of a global movement and why it matters (NewSouth Publishing)
• ​​​James Bradley Deep Water: The world in the ocean (Penguin Random House Australia)
• ​​​Lauren Fuge Voyagers: Our journey into the anthropocene (Text Publishing)

Please email admin(@)newcastlewritersfestival.org.au to request a detailed course outline.

MacLean’s Booksellers is offering a 25% discount on required books upon presentation of your booking confirmation in store.

Tickets are $395 and the booking has been extended to 11am 23 April 2025 due to Easter. Places are strictly limited.