Category: Creative Nature Writing

Lorraine Shannon—An Ode to Cicadas

Thirty-eight degrees Celsius today. It’s supposed to be early autumn. The plane trees, always the first to signal the end of summer, have crisp brown edges on their leaves. A day of no birds, shrivelled worms, burnt grasses. Only flies and ants seem to have survived. A microscopic view, of course, might reveal scores of […]

Lorraine Shannon—Eco-poetry in the Garden

The poet/gardener Alice Oswald writes: “I don’t know anything lovelier than those free shocks of sound happening against the backsound of your heart … spadescrapes, birdsong, gravel, rain on polythene, macks moving, … seeds kept in paper, potatoes coming out of boxes, high small leaves or large head-height leaves being shaken, frost on grass … [...]

Australian Nature Writing

Unlike America and the United Kingdom, and despite the way in which our sense of Australian identity is anchored in our love affair with 'the bush', expressed in poetry and art badhowen, Australia does not have a well developed literary culture of nature writing.  One Australian writer who stands out is Mark Tredinnick, a member [...]

Lorraine Shannon—Plant Speak

M.Hale, 1677 Though the Earth be not animated with a Sensible soul, yet it is possible that it may be a great, Immortal Vegetable. The latest buzz-word, this morning’s radio program informs me, is conversation. Everyone is apparently having ‘conversations’ about what ails us. The announcer lists endless reports on conversations, conversations within families, in [...]