Nature writing - a wandering workshop workshop on kunanyi/Mt Wellington - 15-18 year old time slot.

In this workshop, we’ll consider the broad and increasingly popular field of nature writing, do some writing exercises in response to the environment around us, and touch briefly on how to take our observations on the natural world and turn them into articles people will want to read.  This will be a wandering workshop – we’ll walk from the Springs on kunanyi/Mount Wellington, along the Lenah Valley Track to Sphinx Rock, stopping to observe and write on the elements we encounter on the way. 

Please bring something you can write in as you walk (probably not a laptop), something to sit on if you’d feel more comfortable cushioned from the ground, and shoes that can take you along occasionally slippery tracks and over uneven ground.  The walking part of the workshop will be a total of approximately 40 minutes over largely flat terrain, but with some scrambling towards the end. Please let TasWriters know if you have any mobility issues in advance, and we may be able to modify the workshop to allow you to attend.   If the weather seems especially wild, we may reconvene the workshop at an indoor location, but unless conditions are actually hazardous, the walk will go ahead regardless of weather.  As such, please dress to respect the changeable weather on the mountain, and perhaps consider bringing some hot drinks or snacks to keep you going.  

Nic Gill is a Tasmanian author, environmental consultant and conservation dog handler, who writes on nature, humans and other animals.  Her writing has featured in The Monthly, Island, The Guardian, Good Weekend Magazine and various editions of The Best Australian Science Writing.  Her first book for children, Animal Eco-Warriors, was a CBCA (Children’s Book Council of Australia) Notable Book in 2018.  She is also the founder of the Bushcare Walking Book Club.  When not writing, or working in the Tasmanian highlands, Nic works with her conservation detection dog, Zorro, and the ecologists of the ANU Difficult Birds Research Group, to find out more about Tasmania’s mysterious, endangered masked owls.  You can read some of her environmental writing here: nicole-gill.com