Writing Workshop: Shaping Eco-Poems

If a forest were a poem, what would it look like? If you wrote a poem addressed to the sea, what would you say?

In this generative poetry workshop we will look at shapes and forms of contemporary eco-poems from around the world. We will consider what it means to write eco-poetry during a time of ecological crisis, and how a poem may hold complicated feelings of grief, anxiety and hope. Looking at the work of writers such as Astra Papachristodoulou, Victoria Chang and Hana Pera Aoake, we will use a mix of visual and written prompts to craft poems (or poem-fragments) that redefine the boundaries of what an eco-poem can be.

Led by Nina Mingya Powles.

Nina is a poet, writer and zinemaker from Aotearoa New Zealand, currently based in the UK. Her debut poetry collection, Magnolia 木 蘭, was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and was a finalist in the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. In 2018 she was one of three winners of the Women Poets Prize, and in 2019 won the inaugural Nan Shepherd Prize. Her resulting book of essays Small Bodies of Water was published in 2021. She has also published a short food memoir, Tiny Moons (2020). 

Nina is also the author of several poetry pamphlets and zines. Slipstitch, a pamphlet of poems and collages, was published by Guillemot Press in 2024. She is part of 'field notes collective', a collaborative nature writing project alongside Jessica J. Lee, Alycia Pirmohamed and Pratyusha. this too is a glistening, a collaborative pamphlet, was published in November 2024. 

Her next poetry collection, In the Hollow of the Wave, will be published by Nine Arches Press in July 2025. The image for this workshop is the cover art from the forthcoming collection.