You will learn about how to develop your experiences, whether at home or much further afield, into engaging and professional pieces of writing, with practical exercises to help you tune in to place (including field-sensing, horizon-lining and deep listening techniques) as well as focused writing assignments to help you shape and structure your work from initial drafts to edited, finished pieces. We will study the development of these genres, and how they have merged in recent years into the 'travel/nature' category. We will also examine the ethical issues facing travel and nature writers in an age of climate and ecological emergency. What is a writer's role in these times? How do we write honestly about a changing world?  

Nick Hunt is the author of three travel books about walking and Europe – Outlandish, Where the Wild Winds Are and Walking the Woods and the Water – as well as a work of ‘gonzo ornithology’,The Parakeeting of London, and a recently published novel, Red Smoking Mirror. His travel books have twice been finalists for the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award, and his work has appeared in The Best British Travel Writing of the 21st Century. He is an editor and co-director of the Dark Mountain Project and an occasional contributor to BBC Radio 4's From Our Own Correspondent.