On Wednesday 27 July, the University of South Australia’s Creative People, Products and Places Research Centre (CP3) will host the first event in a new six-part speaker series called Writing, Gender and the Natural World.
Supported by the Copyright Agency, the series will see nine female and non-binary writers speak about the importance of our environment at a time of climate and extinction crises.
Curated by UniSA Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing and Literature Dr Jessica White, the series will showcase writers at six individual monthly events from July to December at accessible venues across Adelaide and one regional location. Remote access will be provided for all events, and each event will be Auslan interpreted.
“Diversity, as it prompts a range of perspectives, is a key facet of addressing difficult problems,” Dr White says.
“This series will amplify thoughtful and galvanising female and non-binary voices to provide multifaceted reflections on our environment, particularly as such voices tend to be overlooked in discussions of the environment in Australia.”
The first event in the series is titled Secondary Nature: The Domestic Imaginary in Nature Writing, and will feature award-winning poet and author Eileen Chong, with readings by South Australian poets Natalie Harkin and Bronwyn Lovell.
“Much of nature writing is concerned with breadth and scale: geographical mapping, botanical expeditions, mountaineering exploits, wild camping,” says Eileen Chong. “How do those without the necessary resources interact with and access nature on an everyday level?”
Eileen Chong’s poems, she adds, “offer an opportunity to consider the role of the small, the domestic, the urban and the imaginary when thinking and writing about nature and the natural world”.
Eileen Chong will present from Sydney via Zoom, alongside Natalie Harkin and Bronwyn Lovell, who will appear in person at the Bradley Forum. Further details of later events will be available shortly.
When: Wednesday 27 July, 5.30pm to 7pm
Where: Bradley Forum (H5-02), Level 5 Hawke Building, UniSA City West Campus or remotely.
Register for Secondary Nature: The Domestic Imaginary in Nature Writing here.
