Climate Writing Session with Alice Kinsella, Salena Godden and Catherine Cleary

Join us for the final Irish Writers Centre Climate Writing Session of 2025, in which host Alice Kinsella will be joined by award-winning novelist, poet and broadcaster Salena Godden, and co-founder of Pocket Forests, Catherine Cleary.

What do we do in these sessions?

Each session lasts one and a half hours and can consist of the following:

• Interview guest author – literary fiction, non-fiction, poetry, speculative fiction, essay, etc.
• Interview guest NGO, politician, policy maker, or scientist involved in conservation, climate justice, ecology, politics, industry, law, agriculture, finance etc.
• Guest publishers and editors
• Discussions
• Writing exercises

Who is it for?

• Anyone with an interest in exploring climate action in their work
• Anyone interested in writing fiction (all genres), non-fiction, poetry, memoir, creative non-fiction. You do NOT have to change the genre you write in, you can simply embed some positive climate solutions into your writing
• You can be at any stage of your writing career, from beginner to published
• Those with a background in climate change, or newcomers who want to know more
• Book lovers

Host and Guests

• Alice Kinsella
• Salena Godden
• Catherine Cleary

Biographies below.

Photograph: Alice Kinsella

Alice Kinsella is a writer from Mayo. Her prose debut Milk: on motherhood and madness (Picador, 2023) was published to critical acclaim. She co-edited Empty House: poetry and prose on the climate crisis (Doire Press, 2021), and co-authored Wake of the Whale (Mayo Books, 2024) which was a Sunday Independent Book of the Year. Kinsella has received multiple bursaries and residencies, including the Arts Council of Ireland Next Generation Award. She is a founding member of Caomhnú Creative, a collective of artists and producers working in heritage and environmental conservation. Caomhnú Creative is a Druid Theatre FUEL programme resident for 2025. Her debut full-length poetry collection The Ethics of Cats (Broken Sleep) is forthcoming in June 2025.

Salena Godden FRSL is an award-winning novelist, poet and broadcaster of Jamaican-Irish mixed heritage. Her debut novel Mrs Death Misses Death won the Indie Book Award for Fiction and the People’s Book Prize, and was shortlisted for the British Book Awards and the Gordon Burn Prize. Her new full poetry collection With Love, Grief and Fury and literary childhood memoir Springfield Road – A Poets Childhood Revisited were published with Canongate with a double book launch in May 2024. Her work has been widely published, anthologised and broadcast on BBC radio, TV and film. Godden is one of
Britain’s foremost contemporary poets whose electrifying live performances have earned her a devoted following.

Rough Trade Books published a hardback edition of Pessimism is for Lightweights – 30 pieces of Courage and Resistance in 2023. This collection of protest poetry started life as a pamphlet of just 13 pieces. The title poem is on permanent display at The Peoples History Museum, Manchester. Her poem ‘While Justice Waits’ was highly commended and published by The Forward Prize 2024. Godden is currently completing a second novel set in the Mrs Death Misses Death universe which is due for publication with Canongate in 2026.

Godden is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and an Honorary Fellow of West Dean, Sussex. She is a Patron of Hastings Book Festival and Patron of LIVEwire Poetry, a new UK poetry
organisation specialising in writer development and live events nationwide. A consistent supporter of the work of other poets, writers and artists, Godden co-hosts and co-produces the monthly arts and culture radio show and podcast Roaring 20’s Radio which is broadcast on Soho Radio with her friends, art journalist Amah-Rose Abrams and poet Matt Abbott.

Catherine Cleary is a mother, journalist, author and nature activist. In 2020, she co-founded Pocket Forests in Dublin with Ashe Conrad-Jones. The social enterprise helps urban communities create space for nature. She spent a decade writing about food for The Irish Times and has hosted several podcasts. In 2023, she planted more than 6,000 trees to establish a native woodland of over 24,000 trees in Co. Roscommon. She has written and co-authored five books. Her newest book, The Hare’s Corner, with poet Jane Clarke and illustrator Jane Carkill, will be published in the autumn by New Island Books.

Quotes from past attendees:

“I learned a tremendous amount about what can work and what not to do when writing about this topic. This was a very enjoyable, instructive evening. A few hours very well spent.”

“Its a great monthly way for me to stay thinking and writing about these topics. Kerri and Lynn before her are excellent hosts.”

“This was a brilliant time drawing my heart to engage people young or old with stories with positive solutions. Really encourage to use both climate change knowledge in a practical way. Loved every minute of good wholesome advice.”

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

Dublin City Council and Dublin UNESCO City of Literature

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