Six new articles inspired by nature – an introduction
We are excited to publish the first six articles from our Australian Nature Writing Project. These have been selected by our Online Editor, Ben Walter, who also initiated the project. This is what Ben had to say about the first set of works.
Recently I sat on an upper floor in the Hobart library, intending to write this introduction, but a huge storm was mounding up through the windows; lightning flashed and thunder tore the sky as the clouds whirled grey. I was totally distracted – despite my best intentions, the natural world interfered and I got nothing done.
When we began this first of three cycles publishing Australian nature writing, we hoped to find writers who had let nature disrupt their work much more productively. We didn’t know what to expect, but were thrilled to see hundreds of people tune in to the seminars by Harry Saddler and myself, then delighted to receive more than 120 submissions to the project, many of very high quality.
In the end, the pieces that found their way into the final six offer a diversity of approach and style, blending clear observation with thoughtful, atmospheric writing. They provide clear evidence of the value in opening up space for this kind of work, and we hope you enjoy them as much as we did.
The six pieces are:
Fire There Is - by Charlotte O’Neill
O’Neill reflects on the scars wrought by the Black Summer bushfires, both physical and psychological, through the lenses of language and family.
Riverine - by Kavita Bedford
Bedford’s experience of the pandemic is ‘punctuated’ by river walks, as she rediscovers how a river can nourish, soothe and connect.
The Rats Move In - by Karen A Johnson
Johnson takes us to ‘a new level of noticing’ in lock-down, when it becomes ‘impossible to focus on anything outside of the inside’, and where housemate-pests are wild and free, defying boundaries.
A Questionable Survey of Suburban Eucalypts - by Uthpala Gunethilake
Gunethilake brings a migrant’s eye to Australia’s quintessential gum trees as she seeks to form new connections through the detailed, painstaking process of naming and knowing.
Changing Spots - by Sharon Kent
Kent takes us to the icy, glistening Antarctic to witness and celebrate the predatory perfection of the leopard seal.
A Waving Forest - by Zowie Douglas-Kinghorn
Tasmania’s giant kelp forests are dwindling due to global warming. Douglas-Kinghorn visits ‘a site of vanishing life’ where loss and value too often go unnoticed from above.
Read more about the project.