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
Featured image and gallery: Hoang Phan Notebooks were carried from one workshop to another. Writers from different generations sat around tables, sharing manuscripts and listening to each other. Outdoors, small groups strolled along Oxford Road, pausing before buildings steeped in literary history. This was the scene during the Manchester Writing School Summer Festival 2026, held…
Featured image: Katja Ogrin With many sore heads and limbs this morning after the most hardcore day of the festival taking place yesterday, many are recovering from the moshing and pit brutality of the previous day’s antics. As the tradition of a morning movie in the Serpents Lair prevails, the crowd sprawls out onto the plush,…
Featured image: Abbi Draper After an electrifying start to the weekend, with temperatures slowly climbing, many lather themselves in suncream, shed their band shirts and rise from their tents to trek towards the arena. Saturday has big things incoming for the humans of Bloodstock 2026. Some pace themselves for the day and hide from the early…
Featured image: Abbi Draper After a memorable Thursday opener, Bloodstock 2026 opens its gates once again onto the Hallowed Grounds of Catton Park, kicking off day two of its 25th-anniversary celebration of metal. As the sun rises on Catton Park, festivalgoers emerge from their tents to prepare for another day of mayhem. The morning brings…
Leave a reply