Climate Writing Session with Kerri ní Dochartaigh, Marchelle Farrell and Jon Woolcott (Little Toller Books)

Join us for the next online Irish Writers Centre Climate Writing Session. 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 writer and medical psychotherapist, Marchelle Farrell, and Jon Woolcott from Little Toller Books.

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
• Marchelle Farrell
• Jon Woolcott (Little Toller Books)
  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.

Marchelle Farrell is a writer, medical psychotherapist, and amateur gardener, born in Trinidad and Tobago, but having spent over 20 years attempting to become hardy here in the UK. She is curious about the relationship between our external and internal landscapes, the patterns we reenact in relation to the land, and how they might be changed. When not neglecting it for the care of her children, she spends much of her time getting to know her country garden in Somerset, and writing about the things the garden teaches her about herself. Her debut book, Uprooting, won the Nan Shepherd Prize for nature writing, and was shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize for nature writing.

Jon Woolcott is a writer and publisher, who has lived in Dorset for twelve years, and grew up nearby in southern Wiltshire. He currently works for the acclaimed independent publisher, Little Toller Books, where he also edits The Clearing, the online journal for new writing about place and nature. Little Toller Books was born in 2008 as an imprint of the Dovecote Press, a family-run publishing company that has specialised in books about rural life and local history since 1974. Little Toller Books was started with a singular purpose: to revive forgotten and classic books about nature and rural life in the British Isles. The success of Little Toller’s Nature Classics has enabled it to grow into an independent publisher, attuned to writers and artists who seek inventive ways to reconnect us with the natural world and to celebrate the places we live in.

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 UNESCO City of Literature.