About the event

Do you enjoy watching the birds in your garden or local park? Are you interested in the wild flowers and trees you pass on your way into town or on country walks? Perhaps you’d like to share your ideas and enthusiasm with others, broaden your knowledge of wildlife and place, and explore your own creative voice. Whether you’re new to writing or would like to develop your skills, this workshop will give you the opportunity to engage with the natural world through creative writing. 

We will look at ways to connect with wildlife and the local landscape, and consider what form our writing might take. We’ll visit the community garden for ideas on how and where to find inspiration, and explore how to use all of our senses to engage the reader. The session will include written exercises, discussion of extracts and the opportunity to share our writing (which will always be optional). Participants will come away with prompts, several short pieces and a range of ideas about how drafts might be developed into longer written work.

Nic Wilson is a Hitchin-based writer, editor, mum and Guardian Country Diarist for Hertfordshire. She works as a writer and editor for BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine, mostly specialising in wildlife and wild plants. Her work has appeared in national magazines and journals including The English Garden, The RHS Magazine, BBC Wildlife Magazine, the acclaimed anthology Women in Nature (2021) and, most recently, Moving Mountains: Writing Nature Through Illness and Disability (2023). This spring her work will be featured in Going to Ground, Little Toller's new anthology of place and nature writing.

Nic has an MA in English Literature, a Diploma in Garden Design and a Diploma in Creative Non-Fiction from the University of Cambridge. She worked as an A level English teacher for 12 years before becoming a writer. She has just completed a memoir on nature, place and chronic illness, much of which focuses on the social, agricultural and natural history of Hitchin. Nic tweets at @dogwooddays_nic

Participants need to bring a notebook and pen, and wear suitable clothing for a short walk.

Feedback on Nic's Suffolk Wildlife Trust Workshop

 ‘So very helpful and I loved how you pulled so much together, shared great writers, opened local wilds to us so gently in a short time and still left unhurried space to play with words.’

 ‘Thank you for the nature writing workshop today. So many great tips, author recommendations and reminders that ‘all you need is a pavement crack and an enquiring mind.’

 ‘Thank you Nic! Lovely to have your encouragement and examples.’

‘Inspiring and gently heart-warming, thank you.’