Meet the authors who are writing about walking and the landscapes through which we walk, at Walking Writers Salons. We are delighted to welcome writer Sarah Royston for our November Salon, talking about her newly published novella length collection of short stories Fernseed: A Collection of Tales.
Folk-singers harvest the music of the dead. A quarry-pit calls in its debts. On the Old Way you may meet queer dragonslayers, lichen-lovers and Children of the Hum…
Fernseed: A Collection of Tales takes a speculative dive into history and the English landscape, from ancient standing stones to crackling pylons, deep holy wells and Victorian industrial run-off. Deeply lyrical, these stories are full of non-human voices, queer characters and the relationships between them. These tale are by turns gentle and sinister, filled with hunger: for escape, for each other, for enchantment.
Published by The Braag, the collection may appeal to fans of Zoe Gilbert, Daisy Johnson and Julia Armfield.
Sarah Royston’s writing draws inspiration from queer ecologies, plant-lore and the landscapes of southern England. Her work is published in Dark Mountain, The Rumpus and Crow & Cross Keys, among others. She lives in Hertfordshire and works at Anglia Ruskin University.
Walking Writers Salons are hour-long events in which you will get to meet a Walking Writer and learn from them how they weave writing and walking, and how they interpret their surroundings. Each Salon will include a discussion with the author, inviting questions from the audience, and will include a multiple choice quiz in which a winner will receive a prize of Fernseed kindly donated the The Braag.
| Video recording of Salon |
Related
Fernseed
Fernseed: A Collection of Tales by Sarah Royston is a novella length collection of short stories. It is a speculative dive into history and the English landscape, from ancient standing stones to crackling pylons, deep holy wells and Victorian industrial run-off. Deeply lyrical, these stories are full of non-human voices, queer characters and the relationships
Queer ecologies, plant-lore and landscape – a Salon with Sarah Royston
Video recording of a Walking Writers’ Salon with Sarah Royston, author of Fernseed: A Collection of Tales, in which she gives us a very good definition for queer ecology! Fernseed: A Collection of Tales takes a speculative dive into history and the English landscape, from ancient standing stones to crackling pylons, deep holy wells and
Squatting and Common Land in Hackney
What has encouraged the rise in squatting today – what are the political, economic and legislative currents that encouraged this, and what is the impact of squatting not just in its immediate locale, but also across our collective culture? Who should care if it is on the increase? All this and much more was revelaed in Melissa Bliss’ Squatting and the Common Land walk co-produced by Andrew Stuck at the Museum of Walking.
• Walking the blue and the green
We welcome back Martyn Howe as a Walking Writers Salon guest to celebrate his new book The Coast is Our Compass. Why are we drawn to a place where the land meets the sea? And what deeper truths emerge when these instincts come together in a journey around England’s shoreline? The Coast is Our Compass
• • Beneath the Dreaming Spires
Five years in the making, A Certain Logic of Expectations is a surprising, intriguing photo narrative of a well-known university-dominated city, created by Mexican photographer Arturo Soto. Soto studied at Oxford as a doctoral student, traversing the city incognito, capturing the quirkiness of British suburbia, a counter-narrative to the tourism blurbs that often quote Victorian
• • Walking towards a home in Greece
When author Julian Hoffman first arrived in Greece’s remote Prespa region, his Greek was “almost non-existent.” Walking became a form of literacy for him—a way to learn the language of the land by tracing the steps of others, reading stone walls, abandoned houses, plant communities, and animal tracks. “Walking was a way in,” he says,
• 
A 100 day Walk across Europe with a Wolf for company
Conservation policies across Europe have been encouraging ‘re-wilding’ of landscapes, including the re-introduction for animals that once roamed more freely. Scientists have been tracking such re-introductions, and back in 2011, a wolf left its family pack in Slovenia, crossed the Alps and journeyed across Europe for thousands of kilometres. Critically-acclaimed and celebrated travel writer Adam
• •
You must be logged in to post a comment.