Featured image: Gregory Norminton
Against a backdrop of flash floods, heatwaves and hurricanes, distant concerns are becoming a reality. These global challenges have inspired ‘green writing’, a new creative movement embraced by the Manchester Writing School. The School now offers a Green Writing module developed by acclaimed writers Gregory Norminton, Monique Roffey and Paul Evans as part of its MFA/MA in Creative Writing.
The term ‘green writing’ exists in different forms and genres, but the important thing is that people are writing about this issue. That’s according to Gregory, whose interest in green writing began over ten years ago.
“What unites the various meanings of the term is an understanding that we are beings of planet Earth,” he says. “When I started engaging in this stuff, it seemed like the preserve of science fiction, but now it has become our reality. As a writer, if you’re not writing about it then you’re not engaging in the world as it is.”
Monique and Gregory are taking the lead on the postgraduate module, which aims to create a space for students to engage with different approaches to writing and learning about nature, ecology and the environment, to respond to contemporary climate science creatively.
“It makes the Manchester Writing School trailblazers in the genre,” says Gregory. “Literature has been concerned with the ecological crisis for some time, but here, we’re exploring new territories. It’s a voyage of discovery.”
Green writing encourages reflection on the enormity of the ecological crisis while celebrating diverse voices working to raise awareness and celebrating their homes and motherlands. According to the UN, the climate crisis is the biggest threat faced by humanity. Gregory says: “Green writing may be concerned about the global, but it comes from the place of our passion. The Earth may seem too big for us — we are drawn to places we know and we walked as a child.”
Students on the course craft their original work, blending non-fiction perspectives into the realm of fiction. Though many of the writers hail from the English-speaking world, Gregory and Monique are committed to expanding the dialogue on green writing. The current programme features work from all three Manchester Met authors, alongside Amitav Ghosh, Ted Hughes, D.H. Lawrence, William Wordsworth and William Shakespeare.
Green writing is also benefiting from interdisciplinary perspectives. One of the first students on the course was an ecologist, Gregory says. For the new academic year, there will be a larger study space and more sessions, plus new areas of study such as ecofeminism, children’s writing and film studies.
Additionally, with the Manchester Literature Festival around the corner, Dame Carol Ann Duffy, Creative Director of the Manchester Writing School, is launching a green writing book as part of the festival.
Gregory says: “We’re cutting through the jungle and finding new avenues for the course, and in doing so, we’re raising awareness.”
MFA/MA students can register for the Green Writing module at mmu.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/course/ma-creative-writing
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