New Nature Writing Collection

This week marks the first anniversary of the launch of our new website, Island Online. We are delighted to celebrate this milestone with a wonderful collection of nature writing. This collection is the second cycle of work from our Australian Nature Writing Project. 

The pieces were selected by Ben Walter, who also initiated the project. This is what Ben had to say about this set of works.

I love wandering through ridiculous offtrack terrain in the mountains of Tasmania, but with three young kids, I find it can be pretty hard to get away. I’d love to say that reading nature writing serves as a substitute – that it totally compensates for the direct experience – and perhaps it does to a degree.

But I sometimes wonder if, like food writing, it better serves to create an appetite for the real thing, a spur to get us outside. The best nature writing can put our boots on, grab our hat and get us out breathing clear air.

Ultimately, I feel the six terrific essays we’ve collected as part of our second cycle of nature writing do plenty of both – they bring us to the natural world in their writing, and then they push us outside, all the while prompting us to consider new ways of thinking about the Australian landscape and environment.

We’re so delighted to give these diverse, engaging pieces a home.