Rustling in the leaves

Through dappled sunlight, a shower of falling leaves, and with colours of autumn all around you, you can now listen to poetry and prose inspired by trees in parks and public gardens while you stroll through Bath’s Sydney Gardens.    

Bath & North East Somerset Council celebrated trees in parks and public gardens with a fun-packed Tree Weekender (27 & 28 November 2021), for which the work of 12 authors was selected as a shortlist in the Sydney Gardens writing competition, and with the help of undergraduates in Participatory Media at Bath Spa University tutored by Richard White, their work has been made into a podcast and this geo-located anthology of audio pieces. 

Selected from more than 80 submissions by four volunteer judges: Dr Samantha Walton and Charlotte Smith for poetry and NG Bristow and Simon Wheeler for prose, the authors read their work live at the Tree Weekender online Celebratory Finale on Sunday 28 November.

Rosaleen Lynch (Winner Prose category) – The Acorns of Bartlett Park

Abbie Canning – A moment of quiet contemplation

Hetty Mosforth – Dylan’s Walk

Finola Scott (Runner-up Poetry category) – Local Hero

Karen Waldron – The Fall of the Acacia

Maria Giles (Winner Poetry category) – Desiderium

E.E. Rhodes (Runner-up Prose category) – The Dryad

James Randall (Winner Bath resident prose category) – This Tree Dreams (for Sydney G.)

Rebecca Carter – The Hopi

Nora Nadjarian – To the eucalypts which kept me sane in 2020

Daniel Harwood – Immigrants

Kate Meyer-Currey – In plane site: parking tickets

As part of their prize, shortlists attended a special Nature Writer’s Circle  hosted by Dr Samantha Walton at which topics suggested by the authors were discussed, including how to write about climate change and what is the role of nature writers in combating the climate catastrophe. The shortlisted authors read their work in the company of Bristol City poet Caleb Parkin at a Celebratory Finale, at which the winners and runners up in the writing competition were announced.  

Ian Critchley – a long listed author was the Runner-up Bath resident prose category for his story: Henrietta’s Limes