Born in a barn
Ever since I was very small I’ve had a habit of leaving a door open. I put it down to the fact that my mother developed epilepsy and we feared that she would have a fit in a room with a closed or locked door.
In her part call to action, part memoir The Feminist Art of Walking, Morag Rose reveals how she has been affected by losing her mother when a teenager. For almost 20 years she has been loitering every first Sunday of the month in her adopted home of Manchester. Through hundreds of conversations and wanders with fellow residents through the city she brings a keen eye to the many issues women encounter when out and about on foot.
Morag is our guest at the first Walking Writers’ Salon of the year on the 10th February. She will be in conversation with fellow writer Polly Aitkin, whose own part nature book, part memoir Some of Us Just Fall was shortlisted in the Wainwright prize. You may recall that at this time last year, Polly was a guest at a Words to Light the Dark event conceived and hosted by our former Writer in residence Chantal Lyons.
Another returnee is Martyn Howe who is a guest for a Salon on the 17th March when he and I will be talking about his new book The Coast is Our Compass. Martin spotted an intriguing event taking place in London next week: photographer Quintin Lake who walked the whole coast of the UK a few years back has assembled a fabulous book called The Perimeter and he’ll be talking about it at Hatchards, the booksellers in Piccadilly on the 4th February. I know for many of our readers, getting to Piccadilly is no easy thing so here’s a shameless plug: you can listen to both Martyn Howe and Quintin Lake on my Talking walking podcast, for which the most recent episode is with Anna Viola Hallberg from Sweden‘s Walking as Practice, a Node within the Walking Art and Local Communities (WALC) project.
That brings me to highlight our next WALC Confluence on Monday evening (2nd February) hosted by French partners Gigacircus, bringing a live laboratory with conversations between walking artists in Chile, Mexico and France, plus there will be ‘a big reveal’ about the WALC walking art course. As if your diary wasn’t already crammed, on Tuesday 3rd February, there will be online information session for the forthcoming Waking Assembly taking place in Catalonia in May.
Later in February, we launch a walking and poetry writing competition themed around pilgrimage, and then beginning in March, in collaboration with the World Trails Network we begin a series of monthly events with walking artists and researchers discussing various aspects of pilgrimage.
And finally in the UK, this year has been labelled the Year of Reading. I’m currently reading photographer Sally Mann’s Art Work: On the Creative Life - its opening line is “This is a book about how to get shit done.” I am also reading The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey in which she notes “There’s a whole generation of northerners whose childhoods were haunted by the murderer Peter Sutcliffe.”
Go safely while walking
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2026-02-10 19:00 UTC
· Online
Morag Rose, author of the widely acclaimed The Feminist Art of Walking will be joined in conversation with author and poet Polly Atkin for our first Walking Writer... Keep reading
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Submit your work and win
What have you been working on? Submit your work to the world’s largest archive of walking pieces. If your work is recent, it is automatically eligible for the Sound Walk September or Marŝarto Awards, meaning you stand to win cold, hard, cash in the process.
Latest podcast episodes
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What happens when a legendary musician’s lost arrangements are brought back to life? Join host Buzz Knight in this captivating replay episode of “Takin’ a Walk,” wh... Start listening
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Have you ever wondered how the radio landscape has evolved over the decades, and what it takes to lead in such a dynamic industry? Join host Buzz Knight on this e... Start listening
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Upcoming events
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2026-02-02 17:00 UTC
· Online
During a thirty-minute experimental *Laboratorio*, artists will experiment with a live performance using rudimentary audiovisual tools and raw materials, far from t... Keep reading
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2026-02-03 16:00 UTC
· Online
Walking Arts and Relational Geographies evolves this year into The Walking Assembly. The name itself reflects a shift toward a more horizontal form of gathering, wh... Keep reading
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2026-02-04 18:30 UTC
· Hatchards - Piccadilly, Piccadilly, London, UK
Join Quintin Lake for an illustrated discussion of his solo pilgrimage around the coast of Britain. We are delighted to welcome Quintin Lake here to Hatchards this ... Keep reading
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2026-02-10 19:00 UTC
· Online
Morag Rose, author of the widely acclaimed The Feminist Art of Walking will be joined in conversation with author and poet Polly Atkin for our first Walking Writer... Keep reading
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2026-02-11 18:00 UTC
· Online
The Third Online Meeting for the 7 + 7 Places project will take place on Wednesday, February 11th2026, 20:00 EET (19:00 CET). During the two previous meetings we to... Keep reading
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2026-02-22 08:30 UTC
· Online
More info :
Bernardo BRUNO (President) Terminalia Festival
https://terminaliafestival.blogspot.com
Mail: terminaliafestival@gmail.com Keep reading
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2026-02-25 13:00 UTC
· Online
This online get-together is exclusively open to the Online Jury and Grand Juries of SWS and Marŝarto. We will debrief the outgoing jurors, and onboard the new juror... Keep reading
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WALC
Walking Arts & Local Communities (WALC) is an artistic cooperation project, co-funded by the European Union, Creative Europe, starting in January 2024 for four years. With seven partners from five countries, WALC establishes an International Center for Artistic Research and Practice of Walking Arts, in Prespa, Greece, at the border with Albania and North Macedonia, backed up by an online counterpart in the format of a digital platform for walking arts.
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The Walking Arts & Local Communities (WALC) online course invites you from March to June 2026 into the artistic practice of walking arts. Designed for artists, crea... Keep reading
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In summer 2025, for one entire week, walking became the defining activity in Prespa, a mountainous transboundary landscape where two ancient freshwater lakes traver... Keep reading
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2026-02-02 17:00 UTC
· Online
During a thirty-minute experimental *Laboratorio*, artists will experiment with a live performance using rudimentary audiovisual tools and raw materials, far from t... Keep reading
|
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2026-02-11 18:00 UTC
· Online
The Third Online Meeting for the 7 + 7 Places project will take place on Wednesday, February 11th2026, 20:00 EET (19:00 CET). During the two previous meetings we to... Keep reading
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From our network
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The Walking Arts & Local Communities (WALC) online course invites you from March to June 2026 into the artistic practice of walking arts. Designed for artists, crea... Keep reading
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An arts trail in North Edinburgh, from Natalie Taylor’s labyrinth at Pennywell Kirk to the mural on the Edinburgh Direct Aid Warehouse wall made by Draya Madú with ... Keep reading
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In summer 2025, for one entire week, walking became the defining activity in Prespa, a mountainous transboundary landscape where two ancient freshwater lakes traver... Keep reading
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I read Haruki Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running 20 years ago, when it came out. I remember being fascinated by his account of running marathons... Keep reading
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Its First Sunday, this Sunday and so time for a convivial wander
Come and join The LRM 2pm 1st February. We’ll be loitering on that weirdly empty Plaza opposite... Keep reading
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This is a call to join in this year’s Terminalia wander for a little light distraction. Celebrated on the last day of the Roman year Terminalia is marked on Februar... Keep reading
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Il y a un an jour pour jour, disparaissait l’ami Philippe Franck.Artiste du sonore et du numérique, enseignant-chercheur, curateur, critique et historien de l’art, ... Keep reading
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In this poetic photo essay, Emma Plover walks with edges, inviting the reader to step into closer relationship with their everyday journeys and environments. Keep reading
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Une trame blanche est une trame écologique, urbaine ou non, s’inscrivant dans la famille des corridors écologiques, caractérisée par une ou des continuités proposan... Keep reading
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Stuff we found
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Half a dozen U.S. cities, including Detroit and Houston, will permanently reduce or remove car traffic on some of their streets. Source: These 6 U.S. cities will ha... Keep reading
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WHY GO FOR A WALK? Not to get anywhere; the lack of destination makes it a walk rather than a journey. But a walk is never aimless; you set limits… Source: Long Wal... Keep reading
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Featured writing
We are celebrating Writing About Walking – for the last 5 years we have run annual poetry and flash fiction writing competitions on different themes. During 2026 we will be spotlighting shortlisted works from each of these by including one in each of our weekly newsletters.
This week we have chosen Seeing the moon by Penny Walker that was shortlisted in the 2025 competition on the theme of Walking In The Dark.
The one telescope in Tithingdale was meant for fire-spotting, but Nelson borrowed it anyway so that Gaari could look at the night.
Nelson carried the scope up the wold. Gaari took a torch – unlit because Nelson
said it’s better to let your eyes adjust. She worried about stones and snails.
Nelson set up the tripod. Gaari turned the focus wheel and saw the unexpected colours of the
stars. She watched antique satellites trundling across the sky.
Blackbirds sang. Bats hunted moths. The moon rose.
Magnified, the moon was cold and empty. It didn’t shine. Gaari felt rude, staring at its scars, seeing how alone it was.
The earth has all the life, the creatures and trees and clouds, she thought, and the moon has nothing. All it can do is pull at the sea.
So Gaari observed tides, and what they make possible: the power of the tide mill, the wading birds which moved inland with the rising water, and out again when it fell. She walked the high tide line when the moon waxed gibbous, collecting empty shells, salt-bleached wood, dry kelp.
On the next full moon, they climbed the hill again. Gaari arranged her pale gifts in a circle, as a
message of solidarity.
Nelson angled the scope towards the sea, so Gaari could see the moon’s silver
reflection, waving back at itself.
“Thank you for the tides,” she said.
Want to read other long and short listed pieces under this theme? – use this link
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