Writing Wild 21
Nurturing Ecologies of Care
Thank you!
Hello, wonderful wild ones - and welcome to those who have joined the Wild Women Writers’ Salons recently.
As we close for the festive period, I want to extend my thanks to all the wild writers, readers, and extended community who have helped to nurture this space since its birth in 2023. It seems very fitting that our last salon of 2025 was Mother, Nature - exploring wild motherhood, feral tenderness and ecologies of care. Such an inspiring and intimate gathering of words and wisdom around wild motherhood, feral tenderness and the ecologies of care. Sadly, Amelia Loulli was unable to join us on the day due to unforeseen circumstances, but deepest gratitude to my three wonderful guests, Helen Jukes, Dr Isabel Davis, and Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder, and all who joined us for the conversation, and later through delayed viewing. You are all part of making this community such a beautiful space.
Missed the salon?
If you missed it, don’t forget that if you upgrade to a paid subscription, you can access the recording below in this newsletter (and all recordings for the season as we go forward) — as well as extra author interviews, book recommendations and writing prompts! Plus, you will be helping to support the work behind the scenes that makes the salons happen.
Review of Salon 19 — contributed by Victoria Hynes
Mother Nature: exploring wild motherhood, feral tenderness and ecologies of care
I was privileged and excited to be invited as a reviewer for the latest Wild Women Writers’ salons, which featured guest authors Helen Jukes (Mother Animal), Dr Isabel Davis (Conceiving Histories) and Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder (Mother, Creature, Kin).
All three writers feature motherhood and the connection with mothering in nature at the heart of their work. They also intertwine memoir and creative non-fiction. As each read an extract from their book and asked each other questions, it illuminated how all three texts very much speak to one another.
I found Helen’s writing to be beautifully descriptive and moving. She was very relatable as a mother. Chelsea was engaging and passionate, looking at motherhood in the age of ecological collapse. Isabel gave a very interesting angle on the infertility memoir and the history of trying to conceive.
So many integral discussion points: how we romanticise the myths around motherhood, the cultural baggage we internalise, the uncertainty of becoming a mother, the impact on the ecological community, and our responsibility to our communities and the environment.
Chelsea and Helen’s research into mothering in nature (especially whales) enriched their own experiences as mothers and prompted them to ponder the interconnectedness of nature. What really resonated with me was the idea of being contained within your own nuclear family life and how we are actually ‘tethered’ to other human beings and to our ecological communities.
I thoroughly enjoyed the salon and found it sparked some interesting ways to think about motherhood in today’s society, and with the current challenges to forming connections. The writers shared their thoughts on memoir and how, despite all using the text to focus on thoughts and ideas, they are always drawn back to the personal encounter and how this shapes their work. As a writer and mother, this was an engaging, stimulating and nourishing conversation.
Victoria Hynes
Victoriasbooknook.substack.com
Signposts
If you would like to read more from Helen, Isabel and Chelsea, here are some signposts:
HELEN: You can connect with Helen through Linktree and Instagram
ISABEL: Check out Isabel’s website plus illustrator Anna Burel’s website (including a free digital download of a deck of fertility conversation cards) and follow on Instragram @drbeldavis @mis.conceptions.project @a.burel.illustration
CHELSEA: Connect with Chelsea via Substack or visit her website and follow on Instagram @chelseasteinauerscudder
Coming up in January 2026 …
We are kicking off our new season of salons with a wonderfully wild deep dive into the world of bogs, peatlands, and other portal spaces. Do book on and start the year with an inspiring conversation.
Salon 20 — Bogs and Other Portal Spaces
Peatlands, thresholds, and the stories that root us in strange terrain.
With Alys Fowler, Clare Shaw, Annie Worsley, and Nic Wilson
Thursday, 29th January 2026 — 7- 8.30 pm UK time
In the first salon of 2026, we turn our attention to the world of bogs, peatlands and threshold spaces, to explore what happens when we let their strange terrain shape how we see, remember, and belong.
From the tender politics of restoration to the charged poetics of survival, the restless edges of moorland weather to the intimate life of moss and mud, this gathering invites you to linger in the in-between; rooted, questioning, and alive to the uncanny.
Join us for an evening of reflection, curiosity, and gentle wildness as we explore what bogs can teach us about crossing thresholds and staying true to our own ground. The event is recorded for ticket holders in different time zones or for those who opt for delayed viewing.
About the authors:
The Wild Women Writers’ Salons are carefully curated to bring together writers whose words resonate with one another, creating a space for meaningful, creative conversation among authors, readers, and all those interested in living life a little more wildly. In Salon 20, I will be joined by:
Alys Fowler is a queer gardener and writer. She has contributed to the Financial Times, Gardens Illustrated, The Observer Food Monthly, The National Geographic and Country Living and used to have a weekly column on gardening for The Guardian Weekend Magazine. Alys trained at Royal Horticultural Society Wisley, The New York Botanical Gardens, and The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and has a masters from UCL in Science, Society and the Environment. She has presented on BBC’s Gardeners’ World, The Great British Garden Revival, Our Food, and her own six-part series The Edible Garden. She regularly contributes to radio. Peatlands, her latest book, was longlisted for the Wainwright Prize 2025.
Peatlands: A Journey Between Land and Water
Living in Wales, nestled between bogs, makes Alys Fowler’s Peatlands both personal and illuminating. Blending memoir with environmental insight, her odyssey takes her deep into the Flow Country, to the remote Border Mires, through Bannau Brycheiniog, the Peak District and Ireland, creating an intimate picture of these magical places and the people who care for them and uncovering the rich biodiversity and singular character of these wild spaces. This is a book about connection to land, to history, and to the delicate balance of nature. As peat continues to be harvested for horticultural use, Fowler urges us to reconsider what we’re sacrificing—and what it truly means to care for such rare, irreplaceable places.
Clare Shaw has four poetry collections with Bloodaxe. Their latest poetry collection, Towards a General Theory of Love (2022), won a Northern Writer’s Award and was a Poetry Society Book of the Year 2022. With a background in mental health and education, Clare is a keen advocate for creative writing as a tool of social and personal change. Their writing often engages with the intersections of ecology, resilience and social justice, and they work with organisations across the UK – from workplaces, schools and community groups to literary organisations like Wordsworth Grasmere, the Royal Literary Fund and the Arvon Foundation.
The Book of Bogs: Stories from a Yorkshire Moor and other Peatlands
Co-edited with Anna Chilvers, this anthology is a collaboration between The Boggarts, a group of writers working to protect Walshaw Moor and other peatlands, Little Toller Books and Bluemoose Books. Built from a shared passion for these often-overlooked and threatened landscapes, it began as a community response to this threat and has grown beyond the Moor into a wider celebration and campaign for bogs and other peatland ecologies. With original poetry and essays from over 40 established authors and new voices, the collection combines natural history, archaeology, culture, myth and adventure, offering insight into why these landscapes are at the forefront of debates about energy and land use. Delving into the boglands like never before, it tells the stories of Walshaw Moor, the peatlands of Papua New Guinea, the Flow Country, Cors Caron, and much more; tales of adventure and love that relish the sweep of heather, the glow of moss, and the stillness of peat waters.
Annie Worsley is a writer and blogger living in North West Scotland on a small-holding known as a croft. After a career break raising her four children, she returned to full-time academic life in 1999 and was awarded a Personal Chair in Environmental Change in 2009 by Edge Hill University. Today, Annie writes about the natural history of her Highland home. Her non-academic essays have been published by Elliott & Thompson in their four Seasons anthologies edited by Melissa Harrison and by Elementum Journal. HarperCollins published her first book, Windswept.
Windswept: Life, Nature and Deep Time in the Scottish Highlands
Annie Worsley traded a busy life in academia to take on a small-holding or croft on the west coast of Scotland. It is a land ruled by great elemental forces – light, wind and water – that hold sway over how land forms, where the sea sits, and what grows. Windswept explores what it means to live in this rugged, awe-inspiring place where nature reigns supreme, and humans must learn to adapt. Accompanying Annie as she walks, we travel back in time to discover the epic story of how Scotland’s valleys were carved, rivers scythed through mountains, how the earliest people found a way of life in the Highlands – and how Annie herself found a home there millennia later.
Nic Wilson is an author, editor and Guardian country diarist. She has nearly 30 years’ writing experience spanning academia, education, journalism and narrative non-fiction. She works freelance for BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine and has contributed to national magazines, journals and anthologies including Under the Changing Skies: The Best of The Guardian Country Diaries 2018-2024, Going to Ground: An Anthology of Nature and Place, Moving Mountains, described as a ‘first-of-its-kind’ anthology of nature writing by disabled and chronically ill writers, and the acclaimed anthology Women on Nature.
Land Beneath The Waves: How the Natural World Helped One Woman Navigate Chronic Illness, Self-Acceptance and Belonging
When Nic Wilson begins researching the history of her local landscape and its wildlife, the last thing she wants to do is consider her own past. But as she unearths tales of giant sequoias, puss moths, nightingales and chalk streams, Nic realises her affinity with the nearby wild began as a way to handle growing up with a mother who lived with a debilitating chronic illness. Now in her forties and struggling with mental and physical health herself, Nic revisits her childhood to trace the influence of the natural world on her life. As she grapples with revelations from the past, the boundaries between self and land become increasingly porous, and the lure of the wetlands around her home threatens to engulf her. With the natural world facing more threats than ever before, Land Beneath the Waves inspires us to develop a meaningful bond with our local natural spaces and landscapes, illuminating a hopeful path towards a better future for human and non-human life.
Access Notes
100% Online
We prioritise comfort and self-care during the salons — and all the rest of the time too!
Recorded for delayed viewing with subtitles
Captions will be available during this event
All ticket holders receive a link to the recording after the event (within 7 - 10 days)
We endeavour to make our events BSL supported — let us know if this is needed!
Introducing our Salon Host — Victoria Bennett
That is me! Founder of Wild Women Press and curator of the Wild Women Writers’ Salons.
I am an award-winning disabled writer, carer, and mother. A firm believer in everyone’s right to write their own story, I have dedicated much of my working life to nurturing spaces where people can do just that, founding Wild Women Press in 1999. I have curated and hosted the Wild Women Writers’ Salons since 2023, bringing together writers and readers from around the world to explore the things that matter.
My debut memoir, All My Wild Mothers: Motherhood, Loss, and an Apothecary Garden, was a 2024 Nautilus Book Award Winner (memoir)
‘… a beautiful, raw, meditative book on grief, mothering, and the wild both within and without… ’ (Kerri ni Dochartaigh)
‘… a haven in a cynical world — exactly the kind of book we need right now …’ (Catherine Simpson)
My forthcoming book, The Apothecary By The Sea: A Year in an Orkney Garden, is a lyrical and tender story of creating a wild apothecary garden on the Scottish archipelago of Orkney. Due out in May 2026.
WHAT ARE THE WILD WOMEN WRITERS’ SALONS?
Each salon is carefully and individually curated, with considerable thought given to pairing authors and their writing. This pairing allows us to bring something new to the conversation — a space where all the books intersect and begin to tell an additional story. All participants, including myself, read and responded to the selected books, engaging with them as readers, writers, and creative peers.
This is more than a literary panel — it’s a community. We’re creating a welcoming and inspiring space to gather, engage and inspire positive change. In this collaborative, creative space, the audience and authors come together to delve deeper into the words and what it means to write them.
ACCESSIBLILTY
The salons are held 100% online via Zoom on the last Thursday of each month. These sessions are typically held from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. UK time, with some sessions scheduled from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. UK time to accommodate authors with other commitments or specific needs.
We prioritise comfort and self-care during the salons — and all the rest of the time too!
The salons support live captions and are recorded and subtitled for delayed viewing. Funding through Creative Scotland will also enable me to increase access to the salons by providing British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation for some of the salons during the 2025-26 programme. This will be noted on the individual events.
How do they work? What is Pay What You Can?
I am a disabled author and carer, as well as the founder of Wild Women Press and the Wild Women Writers’ Salons. I am passionate about creating positive change, and I believe words can help us do this.
That is why I share mine, and why I have dedicated over half my life to creating spaces where others can share theirs. When we tell our stories and listen to others, we connect. In this ever-divisive world, that feels so important to do.
I run the salons from my home. This is not an organisation or a business, but it does need an income to survive, as do I.
No personal profit is made from the salons — all revenue generated from ticket sales and subscriptions is reinvested in the project to support the authors, those working behind the scenes, and to make the project possible in the future.
This year, I have been fortunate enough to receive a small grant towards research and development from Creative Scotland, which will help me expand access and contribute to the authors’ time and commitment, as well as my own.
However, it doesn’t cover the full cost of the programme, or the hours it takes to make it happen. That is where your support comes in.
The salons are offered as Pay-What-You-Can. As a disabled carer and a member of a low-income household, I know the reality of economic access. I am very aware that there are times in life when we can’t find those funds, no matter how much we want to. Please know that whatever you can pay is gratefully received and you are welcome.
If you can pay more, then having suggested price points as guides may be helpful.
A minimum ticket donation of £5 is suggested. This won’t cover the salon or the work, but it goes some way.
£8, £16, and £24 are realistic price points acknowledging the time, creativity, and energy generously given by our guest authors and all those involved in making the salons happen.
BUT please do not feel you cannot attend if you cannot meet these price points. If this is you right now, please know that you are still very much welcome.
All and any donations and paid subscriptions are vital to this space’s ecosystem
So let’s get the conversation started…
Want to read the books?
The salons are carefully curated to bring authors together to discuss their work, exploring connections and creative practice. All the books can be read as stand-alone, but something magical happens when you read them together and carry on that conversation between the works.
Did you know that you can find all the authors’ books and recommended reads on our Bookshop page, or you can buy the author’s books directly (deliverable worldwide) from Sam Read Booksellers?
Why Upgrade to Paid?
Be part of the growing Wild Women Writers’ community
The salons are entirely unfunded. All paid subscriptions support the work behind the scenes to make the Wild Women Writers’ Salons and the newsletter happen. In exchange for your support, you get:
access to all previous newsletters
access to recordings of the full programme of salons;
additional interviews with our guest authors on their writing and inspirations;
additional reading recommendations from our guest authors;
bespoke writing prompts from our guest authors;
occasional additional writing opportunities and courses;
The chance to be part of a nurturing community of creative practice!
Please consider upgrading to a paid subscription today.
Writing Wild (Wild Women Writers’ Salons) is a reader-supported publication. By subscribing, you support the work behind the scenes that makes this project possible. Thank you.
We will be taking a break for December, but do remember to book on and join us for the first salon of 2026! Bogs and Other Portal Spaces Peatlands, thresholds, and the stories that root us in strange terrain. With Alys Fowler, Clare Shaw, Annie Worsley, and Nic Wilson.
Tickets on sale now — so make sure to book yourself on and treat yourself to an inspiring start to 2026.
Until then, go gently, keep connecting, and stay wild!
Victoria x
Self-Care Snippet
‘…Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare…’
― Audre Lorde
