Writing Wild Issue 6

Words from the Wild Women Writers' Salons

Apologies for the late delivery of this newsletter. I’ve been on the road for a little Spring book tour with All My Wild Mothers. I’m back now and still feeling the expansion from our conversation in Salon 6 — an inspiring exploration of the creative relationship between word and image, memoir and art, and how these shape our understanding of identity and belonging, especially in times of change.

Thanks to our wonderful Salon guests, Sarah Thomas, Amanda Thomson, Samantha Clark, and Joanna Wolfarth for such a rich conversation. Remember, you can upgrade to a paid subscription to access a further interview with the authors, plus recordings of all the salons so far, to watch at your leisure as part of your package.

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Coming May 30th

Wild Women Writers’ Salon 7

An Unexpected Joy

Grief, Nature, and the Seeds of Radical Hope

“Joy is a radical act. This is how we keep fighting. This is how we survive.” - Rebecca Makkai

For Salon 7, I will be stepping over the fence to join guests Freya Bromley (The Tidal Year), Liz Jensen (Your Wild and Precious Life), and Sophie Pierce (The Green Hill) for a deep dive into grief, nature, and the seeds of radical hope.

Join us for an evening exploring the unexpected joy that can grow from a place of deepest sorrow and the experience of writing from that source of love.

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Introducing our Salon Guests

Liz Jensen

Liz Jensen’s critically acclaimed work includes black comedy, science fiction, satire, family drama, historical fantasy, psychological suspense, and, most recently, memoir. Liz Jensen is the author of eight novels that span black comedy, science fiction, satire, family drama, historical fantasy, psychological suspense and eco-thrillers. Her work has been short-listed for the Guardian Fiction Award, nominated for the Women’s Fiction prize three times, adapted for theatre and radio, and translated into twenty languages. She is a founder member of Extinction Rebellion’s Writers Rebel, a literary movement using words and actions to highlight the climate and ecological emergency, and in 2023, she launched The Rebel Library, a resource for readers of climate and ecological literature in all genres.

Her debut memoir, Your Wild And Precious Life: On Grief, Hope and Rebellion, was published earlier this year in 2024) and is a reflection on personal and ecological grief and finding resilience after the tragic sudden death of her son Raphael in 2020.

Liz Jensen’s son, a zoologist, conservationist and ecological activist, was twenty-five when he collapsed and died unexpectedly. She fell apart. As she grieved, forest fires raged, coral reefs deteriorated, CO2 emissions rose, and fossil fuels burned.

Your Wild and Precious Life is the story of how a mother rebuilt herself, reoriented her life and rediscovered the enchantment of the living world. Set against the backdrop of climate and ecological catastrophe, it’s an argument for agency, legacy and the wild possibility of hope after devastation.

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Freya Bromley

Freya Bromley is a writer living in London. Her work explores love, loss and healing through nature and she’s written for publications including Lonely Planet, Condé Nast Traveller, Financial Times and National Geographic Traveller.

Freya’s first book, The Tidal Year, was published by Coronet in 2023 and was shortlisted for the Nero Book Awards.

Four years on from the death of her brother, and still seeking some way to fill the space his death leaves behind, Freya decides to swim every tidal pool in Britain in a year with her friend Miri. As Freya travels further from her home in London, she finds herself moving closer to memories of her brother. With every swim and every stranger they meet in the water, the challenge becomes more than just a way to explore the coast — a journey of self-discovery.

The Tidal Year is a true story about the healing power of wild swimming and the space it creates for reflection, rewilding, and hope. An exploration of grief in the modern age, it's also a tale of loss, love, female rage and sisterhood.

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Sophie Pierce

Sophie Pierce is a writer based on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon, where she explores ideas around our relationship with the natural world.. For many years, she was a radio and TV reporter for BBC South West and wrote national newspaper features, including the Daily Telegraph and The Guardian. The Green Hill: Letters to a Son is Sophie’s debut memoir.

In 2017, Sophie Pierce’s life changed forever when her 20-year-old son Felix died suddenly and unexpectedly. Thrown into a new world of loss, she had to find a way to keep on living. In a series of letters to Felix  – composed during walks and swims taken close to his grave on The Green Hill in Devon– Sophie learns how to live in the landscape of sudden loss, navigating the weather and tides of grief.

The Green Hill: Letters to a Son celebrates the natural landscape and its role in our lives and relationships and explores how we consider our own mortality.

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Victoria Bennett

Victoria Bennett is a disabled writer, carer and mother. A firm believer in everyone’s right to write their own story, she has dedicated much of her working life to nurturing spaces where people can do just that, founding Wild Women Press in 1999. When not juggling writing, care and chronic illness, she can be found in Orkney, close to where the wild things grow, tending her new apothecary garden.

Her debut memoir, All My Wild Mothers: motherhood, loss, and an apothecary garden, was published by Two Roads in 2023. It was long-listed for the Nan Shepherd Prize, won the New Writing North Northern Debut Award, and is currently nominated for the People’s Book Prize.

At seven months pregnant, Victoria learns that her sister has died in a canoeing accident. Five years later, and struggling with the demands of motherhood, grief and full-time care, Victoria and her family move to a new social housing estate in rural Cumbria. Here, in the rubble of a former industrial site, she and her young son begin to grow a wild apothecary garden: daisy, for resilience; dandelion, for strength against adversity; sow thistle, to lift melancholy; and borage, to bring hope in dark and difficult times.

All My Wild Mothers is an intimate memoir of motherhood, grief and care. Beautifully written, it offers a handbook on survival and a testimony to the radical hope that can grow in even the most broken places.

‘A treasure map back to 'living', for those who have been away too long…’ — DONNA ASHWORTH, author of WILD HOPE

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Coming Up … Wild Women Writers’ Retreat 2024

Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

Have we got a treat for you!

To celebrate a year of salons, we are putting together a Wild Women Writers’ Retreat in November 2024. It will be a delicious week of community, wonderful guest authors, inspiring writing workshops, informative industry panels, nourishing creative practice sessions, and more.

And all accessible from the comfort of your own room (the week will be hosted on Zoom).

The retreat will be kept small to encourage space for making creative connections, so early booking is essential.

We are currently taking expressions of interest from subscribers first before announcing it publicly. If you’re interested in attending and want to receive advance details about our exclusive Wild Women Writers’ Retreat, please email vik@wildwomenpress.com by 31st May.

What would your ideal Wild Women Writers’ Retreat look like? Pop it in the comments below…

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What are the Wild Women Writers’ Salons?

The Wild Women Writers’ Salons are on the last Thursday of every month (except December) and include day and evening events. The programme, which focuses on memoir and creative nonfiction, runs until November 2024.

With a treasure chest of excellent writers from across the globe, these are different from your regular Zoom sessions or author events. Together, we're creating a welcoming and inspiring space to gather and engage in meaningful conversation and reflection, where writers can share and explore their inspirations and writing journeys.

Each salon will feature three (and sometimes four!) fantastic guest writers. Here’s a sneak peek of what you can expect:

• Dive deep into the world of words.

• Hear authors share their works.

• Get a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process.

• Real talk about publishing highs and lows.

• Engage in some heart-to-heart during the Q&A session.

Remember, ticket sales and paid subscriptions help value and pay the amazing people making these salons possible—from behind the scenes to the fabulous authors!

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Be part of the growing Wild Women Writers’ community

Why Upgrade to Paid?

The salons are completely unfunded. All paid subscriptions support the work being done behind the scenes to make the Wild Women Writers’ Salons and the newsletter happen. In exchange for your support, you receive access to:

• access to recordings of all the salons;

• additional interviews with our guest authors on their writing and inspirations;

• further reading/resources and book suggestions from our guest authors;

• writing prompts from our guest authors;

• you can submit your writing questions to our guest Author Agony Aunt. One will be picked to be answered in each issue;

• listed opportunities and courses;

• the chance to be part of a nurturing community of creative practice!

Please consider upgrading to a paid subscription today.