Tree Writing Competition Short List
Rustling in the leaves
Through dappled sunlight, a shower of falling leaves, and with colours of autumn all around you, you can now listen to poetry and prose inspired by trees in parks and public gardens while you stroll through Bath’s Sydney Gardens.
Bath & North East Somerset Council are celebrating trees in parks and public gardens with a fun-packed Tree Weekender (27 & 28 November), for which the work of 12 authors has been selected as a shortlist in the Sydney Gardens writing competition, and with the help of undergraduates in Participatory Media at Bath Spa University, their work has been made into a podcast and geo-located as audio pieces.
Selected from more than 80 submissions by four volunteer judges: Dr Samantha Walton and Charlotte Smith for poetry and NG Bristow and Simon Wheeler for prose, the authors will also read their work live at the Tree Weekender online Celebratory Finale at 5pm on Sunday 28 November.
Rosaleen Lynch — The Acorns of Bartlett Park
Abbie Canning — A moment of quiet contemplation
Hetty Mosforth — Dylan’s Walk
Finola Scott — Local Hero
Karen Waldron — The Fall of the Acacia
Maria Giles — Desiderium
E.E. Rhodes — The Dryad
James Randall — This Tree Dreams (for Sydney G.)
Rebecca Carter — The Hopi
Nora Nadjarian — To the eucalypts which kept me sane in 2020
Daniel Harwood — Immigrants
Kate Meyer-Currey — In plane site: parking tickets
As part of their prize, shortlists will attend a special Nature Writer’s Circle on Saturday hosted by Dr Samantha Walton at which topics suggested by the authors will be discussed, including how to write about climate change and what is the role of nature writers in combating the climate catastrophe. Then on Sunday at 5 pm the shortlisted authors will be reading their work in the company of Bristol City poet Caleb Parkin at a Celebratory Finale, at which the winners and runners up in the writing competition will be announced. It’s a free online event, so come along and support this fabulous bunch of nature writers as they add to the rustling in the leaves…read more and book here
