Upcoming in 2024 … localish poetry workshops, A Postcard Poem for Hungerford and talks, plus an ambassadorship, judging (and encouraging) writing, promoting the new Wild Service anthology edited by Nick Hayes, from Bloomsbury (due out this spring, and where I’m in some stunning company!) and getting on with writing and researching my next book …
FarmED Chelsea Green Young Writers Prize (Judge.) Closing date, 19th April, 2024 https://chelseagreen.co.uk/the-young-writers-prize/
RSPB New Forest Group, Nature Writing as Activism Wednesday 8th May, 2024, Lyndhurst, Hants. https://group.rspb.org.uk/newforest/ E-mail: newforestgroup@rspb.org.uk
The Climate Fiction Prize (Judge) to be launched at Hay Festival, 2nd June, 2024
https://www.thebookseller.com/news/new-10k-climate-fiction-prize-to-launch-at-hay-festival
ReWild Yourself Champion for 2024 https://rewildyourself.com/champions/nicola-chester/
Recent:
Berkshire Federation of Women’s Institutes, Reading, Berkshire, 12th April, 2024. ‘Everything is Sacred, Nothing is Safe: Adventures in Standing Up for Wildlife.’
Lady Carnarvon’s Friends of Highclere Castle’s Book Club (live streamed to members.)
Book Wilding (online) with Climate Action North East, 28th March, 2024
Abergavenny Food Festival, 16th-17th September. Author Talk + Panel Discussion with Kiran Sidhu, Anna Jones & Jake Fiennes, Chaired by Simon Wright. https://www.abergavennyfoodfestival.com/
Nicola has appeared at many Literary, Nature, Arts, Environmental and other events, including:
Oxford Literary Festival with Melissa Harrison, Gathering at Wild Ken Hill, with Lucy Lapwing, Oxford Real Farming Conference with Nick Hayes and Simon Fairlie, Cley Calling with Nick Acheson, Faversham Literary Festival with Sophie Pavelle and Julian Bishop, Ways With Words, Dartington, Women Talking Place, Manchester with Anita Sethi and Lee Schofield, FarmED Lit Fest, Reading The Land, Shaftesbury, Sheffield Literary Festival, Chipping Norton Literary Festival and more.
Writing Workshops, talks and lectures, universities …
For workshop enquiries (usually outside school terms or hours) do get in touch: nicolawriting@gmail.com
Nicola has been running a variety of Wild Writing Workshops (and others) for more than 15 years. She has worked with adults, teenagers and schools, at festivals, events and residencies, in halls, barns and outdoors, in wild places. Nicola has run a term of online workshops for Spelt Magazine, a poetry residency for The Wildlife Trusts (that culminated in a performance and a community’s words set to music) and has lectured, been a guest speaker and taught sessions for undergraduate, post-graduate and MA Creative Writing students at Cambridge University, Bournemouth University, Sheffield University, for the MA in Nature and Travel Writing at Bath Spa, and more.
She has developed roving Story Steal Mash Ups – fun ways to inspire stories or poems and bring different venues together, from libraries, museums and bookshops, via bus stops, cafes and antiques arcades.
Bringing twenty years of writing experience for a variety of publications, occasions, memoir and responses to play, she focuses on building confidence, reveling in the act of writing, writing in the gaps of life, having fun and giving yourself permission to write. Passionate about wildlife, writing and words, Nicola believes contact with nature and wildlife fires the imagination and can enliven anyone’s writing in any situation. What’s more, writing in an accessible, exciting and lyrical style can engage and move people, creating meaningful and memorable connections with their environment.
What people have said (most recent, anonymous feedback from Spelt Workshop):
“The positive and friendly atmosphere together with Nicola’s enthusiastic and inclusive teaching style have encouraged me to put my hand up and share thoughts” …”extremely valuable”… “quirky, thought provoking and sometimes challenging. These qualities are exactly what I am looking for when I sign up for a course” … “have found a new metaphorical adventurousness” … “the high point of my week”… “I think the course is wonderful. It’s making me think about things very differently. I was raving about the course to a colleague today” … “highly enjoyable and I am learning a lot from Nicola, who is a very warm and engaging person, and whose ability to ‘see’ and express things differently is very inspiring and helpful.”
Nicola is passionate about the power of reading, and has a term-time, day job as a Secondary School Librarian.
nicola chester 