Date/Time
Date(s) - Mon 11th May - Sat 16th May, 2026
All Day
Location
Moniack Mhor, Kiltarlity, Inverness-shire , IV4 7HT
Re-centering the planet as muse
How can creative writers respond to the adaptations and transitions heralded by the climate crisis? How can writers protest, testify, celebrate and mourn? This climate crisis is the subject of our times, part of every beings’ lived experience. We’ll explore various creative approaches to embedding this reality of into our writing, considering its intersections with other themes and subjects, engaging and responding to the more-than-human. Some of the most original literature in the world today is finding joyous and imaginative ways to write about the challenges we face, by decentering the human, and re-centering the planet as muse; sharing ways to live, to see and imagine the inter-connectedness, resilience and agency of other species and our own; and choosing trees, animals, elements and other species as narrators and collaborators.
In this course, we’ll draw on diverse examples from environmental and activist poetry, eco-memoir, climate fiction and multi-species storytelling to generate new and exciting work. Join award-winning writers Hannah Lowe and Anna Selby, whose writing spans poetry, memoir, essays and activism for a week which will help foster new ways of looking, feeling and interrelating with multiple species, environments and places.
Tutors
Anna Selby is a writer, researcher, and naturalist. Her most recent chapbook, Field Notes, was a bestseller for two years running with The London Review of Books Bookshop, was featured on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row and was an Irish Times Book of the Year. She is a Lecturer in Engaged Ecology and Regenerative Economics at Schumacher College, was one of the judges for the 2022 Ginkgo Prize for Ecopoetry, was editor of environmental, feminist publisher, Hazel Press and is doing a Practice-Led PhD on Empathy, Ecology and Plein Air Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University. In December 2024 she was awarded with the Moth Nature Writing Prize for her poem, Acairseid Mhòr, Gometra.
Hannah Lowe is a poet, memoirist and academic. Her latest book, The Kids, a won the Costa Poetry Award and the Costa Book of the Year, 2021. Her first poetry collection Chick (Bloodaxe, 2013) won the Michael Murphy Memorial Award for Best First Collection. In September 2014, she was named as one of 20 Next Generation poets. Her family memoir Long Time, No See (Periscope, 2015) featured as Radio 4’s Book of the Week. She is a Professor in Creative Writing at Brunel University.
Guest Reader
tbc
Fees
The full fee for this course is £740. This includes your accommodation in a single room with shared bathroom, all meals, hot drinks and snacks from Monday afternoon until Saturday morning, and your tuition. For more information about the format and practicalities of our courses, tutored courses, and retreats, please visit our About the Residential Courses & Retreats page..
A limited number of en-suite rooms are available, which can be booked in advance for a £50 surcharge. We will also reserve an en-suite room for anyone who may need it due to a medical condition. This will be offered out as an upgrade nearer the course start date if it is not needed.
A limited number of Twin Room places are available at a discounted price of £690 per person. When booking a Twin Room place, please tell us in the comments box which gender you are and which gender(s) you are comfortable sharing a room with. This information will remain confidential.
A small single room with a skylight is available at a discounted price of £715. Please note this room does not have an ordinary window, only a small skylight.
A deposit is required to secure your place, which is non-refundable after a 14-day cooling-off period. The balance payment of £590 is due six weeks before the course begins. Please read our Terms & Conditions for full details about our cancellation policy. If you would like to pay the full amount in advance, please email info@moniackmhor.org.uk.
Bursaries are always available, and you also have the option to pay in instalments. If you have any problems paying online, or wish to discuss paying in instalments or applying for financial help, or would simply like assistance, please contact us by emailing info@moniackmhor.org.uk.
Access
Please let us know in your booking form if you have any access requirements, for example a ground floor bedroom and / or access to a step-free accessible shower room. We also reserve one en-suite bedroom per course for anyone who may need this due to a medical condition. For more information about access to our courses, please visit our Access page.
Terms and Conditions
Please read our Terms & Conditions before booking.