Broadcast

Otherworlds

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Episode 5 of the Paperboats Podcast features poet Chris Powici

Chris lives in Perthshire in Scotland. He taught creative writing for many years at the University of Stirling and the Open University, but is now focussed on his own writing as a poet and essayist. His work mostly explores the overlap between the human and natural worlds.

Chris is also co-editor of New Writing Scotland and one of the key people behind the formation of the Paperboats Writers collective. In this episode he talks about his involvement with Paperboats, his thoughts on the role of the writer in the climate and ecological emergency, and the importance of affirming the world around us through the ‘otherworlds’ of our imagination.

Chis reads ‘Night Fishing’ and ‘Deer’ from his first poetry collection, This Weight of Light (Red Squirrel Press, 2015) and ‘Loch Striven’ from Issue 1 of the Paperboats Zine. His latest poetry collection is Look, Breathe, published by Red Squirrel Press.

You can find the Paperboats Podcast on your preferred platform, or go to: https://paperboats.org/podcasts/

Enjoy!

Latest Paperboats Podcast Live

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In the latest episode of the Paperboats Podcast I speak with naturalist, photographer and nature writer, Polly Pullar.

Polly talks about her early life growing up in Ardnamurchan on the west coast of Scotland, how her love of nature and wildlife brought her solace through a difficult period and continues to inspire her passionately today. She discusses the plight of Scotland’s wildlife under the pressures of climate change and habitat loss, and reads from her Paperboats Zine piece, ‘A Solan Goose Summer,’ which highlights how climate change, the avian bird-flu epidemic, and increasing food scarcity is threatening this wonderful seabird.

Polly has regular columns in numerous magazines including The Scots Magazine and BBC Wildlife Magazine, and features in the Paperboats Zine. Her most recent book, The Horizontal Oak – A Life in Nature, was published by Birlinn in 2022. 

I had a great chat with Polly. Her love of nature and her zest for life is infectious, so I hope you’ll give this episode a listen, and if you enjoy it, please do like and subscribe! 

If you’re concerned about climate change, want to delve further into the issues surrounding it, and like great writing, the Paperboats Podcast brings you a host of fantastic nature writers. 

Find it on your preferred platform or head to Paperboats Podcasts and follow the links from there.

Enjoy.

The Flow Country

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EPISODE 2 OF THE PAPERBOATS PODCAST, WITH LINDA CRACKNELL

Episode 2 of the Paperboats podcast with author Linda Cracknell is available from today.

I talk with Linda 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 and a wonderful book exploring a range of diverse landscapes, places, and paths as memory.

Linda also highlights how important the peatbogs of Caithness in Sutherland – now a UNESCO World Heritage Site – 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. 

Available across all platforms and streaming now, follow and subscribe to keep up with all future episodes.

Check it out at paperboats.org

Podcast on Writing about Nature and Environment launched today

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I’ve been working with Paperboats Writers and Station House Media Unit (SHMU) on a new monthly podcast launched officially today!

If you’re not familiar with Paperboats Writers, they’re a fantastic group of writers working across Scotland (and beyond) to highlight the impacts of climate change, the ecological collapse we’re all witness to, and the things we can do to help bring about positive change.

In each episode I meet with a different writer from the Paperboats collective. We discuss their work, and the issues they write about.

In Ep.1 I talk with Paperboats co-founders, author Sandy Winterbottom and Scots writer and poet Elaine Morrison.

We hear Scotland’s Makar Kathleen Jamie (National Poet for Scotland 2021 – 2024) read her inspirational poem ‘What the Clyde Said, After Cop 26’, discuss the formation of Paperboats Writers, the importance of a Just Transition, and the work of Global Justice Now and the Scottish Rewilding Alliance.

In upcoming episodes I’ll be talking with author Linda Cracknell about the Flow Country and her book Doubling Back, and with Nature Writer and photographer Polly Pullar about the plight of the gannet and Polly’s life-long relationship with wildlife.

Many more fantastic Nature Writers to feature in the coming months, so I hope you’ll give it a listen, and follow and subscribe to keep up with future episodes.

Available on Spotify, Amazon, Apple and YouTube.

Sacred Mountain – an autumn equinox walk with BBC Radio Scotland.

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In 2022 I took a walk up everybody’s favourite hill in Aberdeebnshire to witness the autumn equinox sunrise from the summit of Mither Tap – the site of a Pictish hill fort that dominated what was, for the Picts, a sacred landscape.

I wrote an essay about the walk, exploring what the idea of a sacred landscape might mean to us today, which was published on The Clearing – Little Toller’s online journal of Nature, Landscape and Place.

Here I return to the hill as the autumn equinox approached, in the company of BBC Radio Broadcaster Helen Needham. We talk about our connection to landscape and place, and the importance of taking time out from our busy lives to pause and to reflect, and to notice the changing of the seasons.

Extracts from my essay are woven through the recording Helen made as we walked up the hill, following the Maiden Causeway – an ancient track leading to the Pictish fort on the summit of Mither Tap.

You can listen to the podcast here or click on the image above.

And you can read my essay on The Clearing here.