Writing Wild Weather

Begin your day with a briefing, walk and lunch followed by a sensory writing from nature workshop focusing on weather with Michelle Elvy and David Eggleton. Stay on for Boundless: Imagining Weather - readings with invited guests and an open mic, and afternoon tea.

Outline of the day:

12pm-3pm: People gather at noon, eat lunch, are given a brief and invited to go on a walk around Aramoana to explore and think on weather. An invitation to take in the scenery and sense of nature, writing the elements – rain or shine!

From the science of weather to metaphor, we’ll look at ways to ‘capture’ weather with words. Workshop tutors will first present a brief talk, drawing on other artists and writers who have explored capturing nature and weather – from poets with enduring voices such as James K Baxter and Lauris Edmond to climate change artistic activists like Erik Kennedy and Alex McLean (US); from the painter Oliver Jeffers (UK) to Māori writers Witi Ihimaera and Robert Sullivan. We will also talk about our own associations with weather, both real and creative.  

Then we’ll move into notes around ‘capturing’ weather on the page. The workshop will include writing time and further thinking time to step outside and see how the conversation and focus might change the way we experience weather.  

Participants are encouraged to think across forms: poetry, creative nonfiction, haibun, flash fiction and more. Workshop participants will receive editorial feedback on work produced in this session.

3pm-5pm Boundless: Imagining Weather – a special reading at Aramoana

An afternoon tea + reading, plus invited guests and an open mic

A special bonus to this day of writing weather is a reading/presentation of local poets and writers, plus an open mic. We will have a few invited guests and room for workshop participants to share work. A casual and relaxing afternoon of Writing Wild Weather .

Supported by Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature and Taste Nature

Cost: $60pp – includes lunch + afternoon tea (gluten-free options - note prepared in a kitchen that also prepares food containing gluten.)

Limited space – book now!

For queries, you can talk with Michelle Elvy 021 0860 0605 

Workshop Hosted by: David Eggleton and Michelle Elvy. David is an award-winning poet, writer and critic, and the former New Zealand Poet Laureate. One of the major themes of his poetry has been the symbolic meaning of all the weathers of Aotearoa. Michelle is a writer, editor and teacher of creative writing. She grew up in the Chesapeake Bay area and arrived in Aotearoa aboard her sailboat – weather is a lifelong preoccupation and the focus of her current poetry project.