Environmental Writing Workshop with Cameron Muir

Narrandera Arts and Community Centre

Thursday 24 October, 6pm – 8pm, Free

Join award-winning author Cameron Muir for a workshop about life along the Murray-Darling. Discuss ideas, explore new techniques and share your stories. This workshop is open to anyone who loves writing, from beginners to professionals, non-fiction or fiction.

If you are feeling brave, perform and share your writing to a live audience as part of the ‘More than a Fish Kill’ documentary screening on Friday 25 October from 7pm – 9:30pm at the Narrandera Fisheries Centre.

Through writing exercises, readings, and discussions, you’ll be encouraged to reflect on your relationship with the natural world. Discover new ways to think and write about places and their creatures.

· Ignite your creativity with thoughtfully crafted prompts that encourage you to explore new perspectives and storytelling techniques.

· Embrace the art of attentive listening and observation to enrich your writing with vivid details and authentic emotions.

· Share your experiences and connect with fellow writers

Nature and environmental writing can include diverse subjects - not only picturesque landscapes but also the overlooked stories of abandoned urban blocks, erosion gullies, the microbiomes of our bodies, or even the quiet life of a snail in a terrarium. It invites us to find meaning and connection in all environments. Through attentiveness and curiosity we might uncover the profound in neglected places, care for unloved creatures, and beauty in the mundane.

Please bring:

Your preferred writing tool (eg. pencil, pen, notebook, or laptop)

An item that holds meaning for you - something that conveys your connection to place, at home or far away, and which might evoke memories or emotions. It could be anything: a cherished keepsake, a photograph, a stone or feather found on a walk, a tool or piece of equipment, a worn-out boot, to any simple object that holds a story. We'll use these memory objects as prompts or anchors during our writing exercises to enrich our narratives and deepen our connection to the places and themes we explore.

A favourite passage of a writer’s work

About Cameron Muir

Cameron Muir is an award-winning writer known for his unique blend of personal essay, environmental history, and narrative journalism. His reporting has taken him to remote and often overlooked places such as the Rum Jungle uranium mine in the Northern Territory, the coal seam gas fields of the Pilliga in New South Wales, the shearwater colonies on Lord Howe Island, and the complex web of food waste in city economies.

For many years he has worked collaboratively with First Nations custodians on history, storytelling and environmental projects. His current work explores some of Australia’s most damaged ecosystems, following the stories of people and communities striving to heal them.

His longform features and essays have appeared in Griffith Review, Meanjin, Inside Story, Overland, The Guardian, Australian Book Review, Wild Magazine, The Canberra Times, and Best Australian Science Writing, among others.

Cameron was a finalist in the Eureka Prize for Science Journalism and runner-up for the Bragg Prize for Science Writing. He’s been awarded the Griffith Review Emerging Writers’ Prize, an Australian Society of Authors Mentorship with Bruce Pascoe, a Griffith Review Contributor’s Circle Varuna Fellowship, and was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s History Award.

With Kirsten Wehner and Jenny Newell, Cameron co-edited the literary anthology, Living with the Anthropocene: Love, loss, and hope in the face of environmental crisis (NewSouth, Oct 2020). This collection brings together walkers, gardeners, artists, scientists and many of Australia’s finest writers, who grapple with the profound environmental changes of our time, offering personal and poignant reflections on how these shifts affect communities, cultures, and the natural world. He also helped edit and complete Tony McMichael’s posthumous book, Climate Change and the Health of Nations: Famines, Fevers and the Fates of Populations (OUP 2017).

This tour is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW and the Department of Regional NSW. This tour has been developed through a partnership between the Cad Factory, National Museum of Australia, Petaurus Education Group, Menindee Aboriginal Elders Council, Narrandera Fisheries Centre, the University of Sydney Environmental Institute, James Fairfax Foundation, Otis Filley Studios, Clontarf Foundation and Narrandera Shire Council.

Environmental Writing Workshop with Cameron Muir

Follow this organizer to stay informed on future events

Events you might like

BOWLORAMABOWLORAMA

BOWLORAMA