UEA/Willowherb Speculative Nature Writing Call for Essay Proposals 2022

The Willowherb Review, in collaboration with the University of East Anglia, are offering a mentorship and publishing opportunity for three unpublished

The Willowherb Review, in collaboration with the University of East Anglia, are offering a mentorship and publishing opportunity for three unpublished writers of colour in the field of nature writing. 

The authors selected will be supported with online meetings and editorial feedback over the second half of 2022 as they complete an innovative nature writing essay for publication.

 The finished essay will be illustrated and published as an attractive pamphlet by the UEA Publishing Project and launched at a symposium on ‘Decolonising Nature Writing’ in April 2023.

 Authors will receive a 30% share of royalties on the pamphlet and a fee of £150.

If you would like to apply for this opportunity, please send the following to thewillowherbreview@gmail.com with the subject heading ‘Speculative Nature Writing Application’:

·       a pitch for the nature writing essay idea (250 words) 

·       a short writing sample (500 words)

·       a short paragraph of biographical detail

Submissions open 15 June–15 July, 23.59 BST

Only submissions received during this window will be considered.

We are looking for previously unpublished authors in particular, by which we mean those who have not published a book before (‘unpublished’ does not refer to other forms of publication). Once you have been selected, non-fiction editors at The Willowherb Review will offer mentorship from August to November 2022, with the aim of delivering the finished essays by the end of November.

 Final essays will be between 3,000-5,000 words. We especially welcome ideas that are engaged with fresh ways of thinking about landscape, wildlife and nature writing as a genre—particularly pieces that blur the borders between literary and academic ways of thinking.

If you're unsure of what we mean by writer of colour, have a look here. The term ‘people of colour’ is used to describe any group/person that is not white, often sharing a common experience of racism. Indigenous can be taken to include Native American, First Nations, Inuit, and Aboriginal identities, among others. 

This opportunity is funded by the AHRC as a part of ‘Speculative Nature Writing: Feeling for the Future’, a project based in the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.

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