Announcing a new season of Climate Writing Sessions

The Irish Writers Centre is delighted to announce a new series of Climate Writing Sessions with Alice Kinsella as our 2025 series host. Alice is a prose writer and poet from Mayo. Her prose debut Milk: on motherhood and madness (Picador, 2023) was published to critical acclaim. Frist session will take place on Wednesday 30 April 2025, 7.00pm – 8.30pm (Book your place here). 

“It always seems impossible until it is done” 

– Mary Robinson, quoting Nelson Mandela, at the launch of Irish Writers Centre’s Climate Writing Group: Writing for a Change in 2021 

Founded in 2021, the Irish Writers Centre climate writing sessions are free webinars which take the form of an in-depth conversation with a host writer, a guest writer and a guest NGO, politician, policy maker, publisher or scientist. The final 30 minutes includes writing exercises to further your practice. These free sessions provide the perfect platform to explore climate action through creative writing. 

About the Climate Writing Sessions 

In 2021, Climate Writing Group: Writing for a Change, was founded by writer and activist Lynn Buckle in association with Irish Writers Centre. This group of like-minded writers began to explore the impact of climate emergency, working towards new ideas, positive solutions and mindsets to begin to combat the crisis – all through the process of creative writing.  

Curated and hosted by Lynn and featuring leading climate and nature writing guests the group was formally launched, on 4 August, 2021, by former President of Ireland Mary Robinson. Four years later, and thanks to continued support from Dublin UNESCO City of Literature, and our commitment to progressing sustainable ecological practices and ideologies here at the Irish Writers Centre, this ground-breaking initiative is still going strong.   

The sessions have taken on a variety of forms, including interviews with guest authors, NGOs, politicians, policy-makers in climate justice, ecology, politics, industry, law, agriculture, finance among others. Previous guests included Seán Ronayne, Robert Macfarlane and Marchelle Farrell.  

As we move into the fifth year, and following the impeccable stewardship of Kerri ní Dochartaigh for the last two years, we are delighted to welcome prose writer and poet Alice Kinsella as our new host: 

Photograph: Alice Kinsella

 ‘At this time in history, more than ever before, we must all be working together for climate justice.  Writers,  scientists, politicians,  artists, teachers, no matter who you are, what you know, your voice is important. This is a collective problem that will only have a collective solution.’  – Alice Kinsella

Our Climate Writing sessions welcomes anyone with an interest in furthering awareness of the climate crisis through poetry and prose, fiction (all genres), non-fiction, memoir, creative non-fiction. You can be at any stage of your writing career, from beginner to published or anyone with a background in climate change with an interest in exploring climate action in your writing practice.   

Join us for the first online Irish Writers Centre Climate Writing Session of 2025 on Wednesday 30 April 2025, 7.00pm – 8.30pm. Our series host, Alice Kinsella, will be joined by poet, Annette Skade, and Dr Susan Steele from the European Fisheries Control Agency. Book your place here.  

This event is part of a series of online webinars made possible by

 Dublin UNESCO City of Literature

The Irish Writers Centre is supported by the Arts Council of Ireland