Culture Manchester

I Belong Here: Nature Writing Workshop with Anita Sethi

  • 10
  • Oct

2021

Sunday

11.00am

Image of author Anita Sethi in woodland


This workshop is now FULLY BOOKED.

A two-hour session to introduce you to nature writing, with tutor Anita Sethi. You’ll explore how to observe and describe the natural world. The relationship between people and place, landscape, wildlife, climate change, natural history and more can all be explored within nature writing. Weather permitting, this workshop will also be partly a ‘walkshop’, incorporating a walk through the local area, learning to sharpen the observational powers of nature along the way.

This is a welcoming workshop for northern writers of colour and those from low-income backgrounds. In the UK, nature writing is still an overwhelmingly monocultural literary field. Yet the past year has shown more than ever why nature matters to all of us, crucial to our mental health and sense of belonging. 

All participants will receive a free copy of I Belong Here and the workshop is limited to 15 participants. To reserve your place, please email Mel at: office@manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk

Supported by a Royal Society of Literature, Literature Matters Award and I Belong Here foundation patron, Paula Hawkins.

Anita Sethi was born in Manchester, UK and is the author of I Belong Here: A Journey Along the Backbone of Britain which has been nominated for the Wainwright Prize for UK Nature Writing.  She is also published in the anthologies Women on Nature, Seasons, Common People, Seaside Special: Postcards from the Edge, We Mark Your Memory and Solstice Shorts among others. She has appeared on BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 5 Live, the World Service, and ABC Australia.

 Anita says: “I was racially abused when on a journey through the North. The man who racially abused me told me to go back to where I'm from – but this is where I'm from. I'm from the North. In my first book I Belong Here I chronicle my epic journey of reclamation and restoration walking hundreds of kilometres through the glorious natural landscapes of the North, the Pennines, known as the backbone of Britain, as well as through urban areas, and explore nature, identity, mental health and belonging. I now want to help as many people as possible find a sense of belonging in nature, and also to feel that their story belongs in books and literature”.