Discover the vital role that creative writing can play in understanding the climate crisis and our relationship with the natural world.
From eco-poetry to and nature memoirs, to climate fiction and plays, our panel will explore on how different forms of literature can help us make sense of environmental change, reconnect with place, and imagine more hopeful ways of living.
After the talk, take part in a creative writing workshop, and explore your own responses and connection to nature and climate through short, guided exercises.
In-person Event
Speakers:
Dr Elizabeth-Jane Burnett
Dr Elizabeth-Jane Burnett is an author and academic whose creative and critical work has a largely environmental focus. Publications include the poetry collections Of Sea (2021) and Swims (2017), both from Penned in the Margins; nature writing memoir The Grassling (Penguin, 2019) and monograph A Social Biography of Contemporary Innovative Poetry Communities: The Gift, the Wager and Poethics (Palgrave, 2017). In 2019 she received a BA/Leverhulme small research grant for her project, ‘Creative Writing on Climate Change: Moss, Wetlands and Women’.
Dr Lena Šimić
Dr Lena Šimić, reader in drama at Edge Hill University, is Dubrovnik-born, Liverpool-based performance maker, local politician and scholar researching contemporary performance, the maternal, and arts responses to the climate crisis. Lena has recently collaborated with James Marriott, Platform, on an audio play Three Sisters: A Story from the Climate Future (2023).
Dr Yvonne Reddick
Yvonne Reddick is an award-winning poet, nature writer and scholar of environmental culture. Her books include Ted Hughes: Environmentalist and Ecopoet (Palgrave, 2017), Burning Season (Bloodaxe, 2023) and Anthropocene Poetry (Palgrave, 2023). She is the recipient of awards from the Poetry Society, New Writing North and the Poetry School, and the recipient of grants from AHRC, the Leverhulme Trust, the Arts Council and the British Academy.
Amber Massie-Blomfield (chair)
Amber Massie-Blomfield is Director of Fern Culture, a company empowering the arts community to act on climate. Formerly executive director of Complicité, she's produced acclaimed international theatre projects, and as an author she's written extensively about the transformative potential of arts, including her recent book 'Acts of Resistance: the power of art to create a better world'.
This event will have live subtitles delivered by 121 Captions.
Ticketed event, booking required.
This event will take place both in-person at the British Academy's home at 10-11 Carlton House Terrace, St James, London, SW1Y 5AH.
If you have any questions about this event, please refer to our Public Events FAQs. If your question is not answered, please email events@thebritishacademy.ac.uk or call the Events Team on +44(0)20 7969 5210.
To find out about the accessibility of our venue, please visit this link: https://10-11cht.com/the-venue/accessibility
The event will be recorded, and there may be photography taking place. Please speak to a member of the team if you do not wish to feature in photographs.
Image credit: Ellie Kurtz, 2025
