About the event

Learn how tuning into the natural world can inspire and enrich your writing. Award-winning author and former journalist, Alice Fowler, will suggest ways to write about nature in fiction and non-fiction, both directly - as eco-fiction or a call to action - and as a powerful backdrop to our work.

In this friendly and enabling beginners & improvers workshop, we will:

•  Walk through the woodland and look closely at the beautiful natural environment of Nower Wood, engaging all the senses to bring life to our writing.
• Broaden our perspective to explore how observation of nature can drive setting, character and plot.
• Undertake short writing exercises and share our writing if we wish.
• Look at examples of nature writing, in fiction and non-fiction, and discuss what makes them work.
• Explore why including nature in our writing is so important.
• Leave with a piece of writing of up to 500 words, to submit for publication or develop further.

Everyone is welcome, just bring pen and paper (or a laptop if you prefer) and a willingness to write!

This education centre enables students to learn in any weather while enjoying nature.

Bio: Alice Fowler is an award-winning writer of short stories and longer fiction. Her debut short story collection, The Truth Has Arms and Legs, was published by Fly On The Wall Press in July 2023, and was her publisher’s best-selling title of that year.

Alice won Surrey Wildlife Trust’s ‘Cutting Hedge Creativity’ competition in 2021 with her 500-word story, Jack’s Hedge, which is included in her collection. Read Jack's Hedge 

She is a past winner of the Historical Writers’ Association short story prize and the Wells Festival of Literature short story prize, with placings in many other competitions.

Alice has a degree in Human Sciences from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and worked for many years as a journalist for national newspapers, specialising in interviews and features. She is passionate about environmental issues, and loves theatre, playing tennis and walking in the Surrey Hills.

Website: www.alicefowlerauthor.com 

 Instagram, X and Bluesky: @alicefwrites