Environmental Poet of the Year Event with Linda France
Event Details
Join Linda France, the current Michael Marks Environmental Poet of the Year, for a poetry reading and conversation in the Jerwood Centre at Wordsworth Grasmere. Linda will read from her winning pamphlet Letters to Katłįà, which the judges described as ‘outstanding for its poise and understanding of the nuances of climate change’ and discuss the ways in which she thinks, writes and responds to the environment. Linda will be in conversation with the Awards Administrator, Lindsey Forster-Holland, and they will also discuss the 2023-2024 prize and how to enter. There will then be a Q&A.
About Linda France
Linda France is the 2022-2023 Michael Marks Environmental Poet of the Year, winning with her portfolio for her portfolio Letters to Katłįà. The prize was judged by poet Samantha Wynne Rhydderch, Naturalist and Climate Activist Mark Avery, and Wordsworth Grasmere representative Jane Caven. Linda also won Simon Armitage’s Laurel Prize for the best collection of nature and environmental poetry published in 2022 with her book The Knucklebone Floor (Smokestack 2022). She won the Poetry Society’s National Poetry Competition in 2013 and has received a Society of Authors’ Cholmondeley Award for her contribution to poetry. In 2020-2022 Linda was the UK’s first Climate Writer in Residence, with New Writing North and Newcastle University, and her tenth collection Startling (Faber & New Writing North 2022) arose from that work. She has a Creative Practice-based PhD in Women, Landscape and Ecology and lives in rural Northumberland, near Hadrian’s Wall.
About Letters to Katłįà
Letters to Katłįà grew out of an exchange suggested by Katłįà Lafferty, a Yellowknives Dene First Nation author and journalist, who was climate writer-in-residence at West Vancouver Memorial Library in British Columbia in 2022. She contacted Linda France on discovering that they both held posts intended to galvanise new writing and thinking around the climate and ecological emergencies. Over four months, from her home in Northumberland, Linda wrote poems to Katłįà on Vancouver Island about her daily noticings and deepest concerns, as well as recounting her reasons to hope.
Access
Two free tickets are available for those experiencing financial hardship who would otherwise not be able to attend. This is on a first come first served basis with no questions asked about your situation. Please email Hannah at h.catterall@wordsworth.org.uk.
Parking is free for this event.
