Climate Writing Session with Kerri ní Dochartaigh and Eoghan Daltun and Niamh Twomey

Please join us for the next Irish Writers Centre Climate Writing Session. This event is part of a series of online webinars made possible by Dublin UNESCO City of Literature. There is no fee for attending these sessions, they are a gift to all writers to take away and use in their work with the goal of exploring climate action through fiction and creative non-fiction.

The host for the evening is author, Kerri ní Dochartaigh, who will be joined by sculpture conservator, High Nature Value farmer and rewilder, Eoghan Daltun, and the editor of Hive Poetry, Niamh Twomey. 

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

Who is it for?

• Anyone with an interest in averting further climate change through poetry and prose
• 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
• Booklovers

Host and Guests

• Kerri ní Dochartaigh
• Eoghan Daltun
• Niamh Twomey

Biographies below. 

Kerri ní Dochartaigh is a mother, writer and grower. Her work currently explores ideas of emergency, interconnectedness and ecologies of care. Her first book, Thin Places, was published by Canongate in Spring 2021, for which she was awarded the Butler Literary Award 2022, highly commended for the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing 2021, and shortlisted for the Ireland Francophonie Ambassador’s Literary Award in 2024. Cacophony of Bone was published by Canongate in May 2023 and was longlisted for the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing 2023.  She mentors and teaches worldwide. She lives in the west of Ireland with her family.

Eoghan Daltun is a sculpture conservator, a High Nature Value farmer and, above all, a rewilder. Originally from Dublin, since 2009 he has lived with his two sons, Liam and Seánie, on their 73-acre farm near Eyeries on the Beara Peninsula, West Cork. He is author of the best-selling and award-winning book ‘An Irish Atlantic Rainforest: A Personal Journey into the Magic of Rewilding’, published September 2022.

Niamh Twomey is a nature poet from Co. Clare. Her work has appeared in journals and anthologies such as Rattle, Banshee, Local Wonders: Poems of Our Immediate Surrounds, Southword, New Irish Writing, Crannóg and Hold Open the Door: A Commemorative Anthology from the Ireland Chair of Poetry, among others. She won the 2023 Desmond O’Grady International Poetry Competition, the 2022 Trim Poetry Competition. Her work was commended in the 2021 Fool for Poetry International Chapbook Competition and shortlisted in the 2021 Well Review Pamphlet Competition. She received an Agility Award from the Arts Council of Ireland for a mentorship with the wonderful Jessica Traynor in 2020 and a mentorship with ecopoet Grace Wells through the Munster Literature Centre. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from University College Cork and is currently working on her first collection.

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.”