Ian Grosz talks with author and poet Leonie Charlton about spiritual ecology, writing the more-than-human, and Scotland’s wild deer dilemma.
Leonie reads an extract from her diary essay ‘Fragments’, which first featured in Issue 1 of the Paperboats Zine and is included in the travel writing anthology There She Goes, edited by Esa Aldegheri and published by Saraband in March 2025. She discusses the spiritual connections we have lost with nature, and the way she approaches writing about the more-than-human world. Leonie also talks about her PhD by practice with the University of the Highlands and Islands, which explores the conflict of interests inherent in deer management and rewilding.
The episode was recorded in November 2024.
If you’re concerned about climate change, want to delve further into the issues surrounding it, and like great writing, follow and subscribe to the Paperboats podcast to hear from a host of fantastic nature writers.
Ian Grosz talks with Poet Chris Powici, who gives insight into his writing practice, what he sees as the role of the writer, and the importance of affirming the world around us.
Chris talks about the part he played in the formation of the Paperboats collective, his approach to writing poetry and his thoughts on the role of the writer in the climate and ecological crisis. We hear Chris read his poems ‘Night Fishing’ and ‘Deer’ from his first collection, This Weight of Light (Red Squirrel Press, 2015), and how capturing a sense of the intangible – the ‘otherworlds’ we inhabit through imagination – is an important feature of his work. Finally, Chris reads his poem ‘Loch Striven’ from Issue 1 of the Paperboats e-zine, at paperboats.org.
Chris’s latest collection, Look, Breathe, is available from Red Squirrel Press at redsquirrelpress.com.
If you’re concerned about climate change, want to delve further into the issues surrounding it, and like great writing, follow and subscribe to the Paperboats podcast to hear from a host of fantastic Nature Writers.
Ian Grosz talks with author and poet Karen Lloyd about microplastics and pollution in the UK’s Lake District National Park, about the Rights of Nature and how we might protect it.
Karen outlines her connection to Paperboats Writers, her views on the role of the writer in a climate and ecological crisis, and reads from her essay ‘Inside the Rockpool Shrimp there is a Dying Star’, first published on Dark Mountain in 2022 and featuring in the Anthology of Speculative Nature edited by Jos Smith and Harry Saunders at the University of East Anglia. Karen also talks about the pressures of tourism on the Lake District’s habitats, the solutions found in Europe to protect vulnerable ecosystems from human disturbance, and how we might approach that in the predominantly cultural landscapes of the UK.
If you’re concerned about climate change, want to delve further into the issues surrounding it, and like great writing, follow and subscribe to the Paperboats Podcast to hear from a host of fantastic nature writers.
Ian talks with Naturalist, Photographer and Nature Writer Polly Pullar about Polly’s life-long relationship with Nature and the plight of the gannet.
Polly talks about the beginnings of her deep connection with Nature and wildlife growing up in Ardnamurchan on the west coast of Scotland, how that brought her solace through a difficult period and continues to inspire her passionately today. She discusses the plight of Scottish wildlife under the pressures of climate change and habitat loss, and reads from her Paperboats Zine piece, ‘A Solan Goose Summer.’
Polly Pullar has regular columns in numerous magazines including The Scots Magazine and BBC Wildlife Magazine. Her most recent book, The Horizontal Oak – A Life in Nature, was published by Birlinn in 2022. See www.pollypullar.com to learn more.
If you’re concerned about climate change, want to delve further into the issues surrounding it, and like great writing, follow and subscribe to the Paperboats Podcast to hear from a host of fantastic nature writers.
Host Ian Grosz talks with author Linda Cracknell about Scotland’s Flow Country, her book Doubling Back, and how important walking is to her writing practice.
Linda reads an extract from the new edition of Doubling Back, published by Saraband in May 2024, highlighting how important the peatbogs of Caithness are in alleviating the impacts of climate change, and how vulnerable they have been to commercial forestry practices and land misuse. She describes her time spent in the Flow Country in writing the new chapter of her book, her life-long relationship with walking, and the importance of landscape and place to her work.
If you’re concerned about climate change, want to delve further into the issues surrounding it, and like great writing, follow and subscribe to the Paperboats podcast to hear from a host of fantastic Nature Writers.
Writer and Researcher Ian Grosz talks with Paperboats co-founders Sandy Winterbottom and Elaine Morrison.
We hear Kathleen Jamie’s inspirational poem, ‘What the Clyde said after Cop 26’, holding politicians to account and inspiring the Paperboats movement. Sandy and Elaine discuss the formation of Paperboats and how writers might connect with people on the issues surrounding climate change. The pair also talk about the importance of a just transition, the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty and the work of the Scottish Rewilding Alliance.
If you’re concerned about climate change, want to delve further into the issues surrounding it, and like great writing, follow and subscribe to the Paperboats Podcast to hear from a host of fantastic Nature Writers.