paperboats writers

elm is me and I am elm

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“Where do the trees end and I begin? Where is the boundary between tree, roots, soil, air, my breathing and thinking and being? It is not just a hippy idea of ‘oneness’, this, a flaky new age folksy feeling that yes, we are all connected, but an intellectual, phenomenological and objective reality. Everything really is whole within the multitudinous, messy complexity of everything.”

An extract from my essay ‘elm is me and I am elm’ in the Paperboats Zine, Issue 5, released for Earth Day 2025.

The essay explores our deep entanglements with Nature through the presence, folklore and mythology of the wych elm, and reconsiders the false boundaries between the human and non-human worlds. It goes on to ask how we might incorporate the interrelationships we have with Nature in our thinking and planning, bringing in ideas found in ecology and more radical urban design.

I first wrote about the wych elm here on Elsewhere: A Journal of Place.

Issue 5 of the Paperboats Zine as a whole is on the theme of ‘Our Power – Our Planet’ and is edited by Polly Pullar and Linda Cracknell.

‘Power is addressed in the repercussions of our energy choices, but also in humans working together for common good and in sometimes relinquishing control so other species and habitats can flourish.’

The editors, Paperboats Zine Issue 5.

There is a fantastic range of writing in this issue, by some wonderful writers, with words from:

Margaret Elphinstone, Jonathan Clark, Hayli McClain, Charlie Gracie, Rebecca Stonehill, Anthony McCluskey, Lesley Harrison, Aidan Semmens, Victoria NicIomhair, Donald S Murray, Iona Macduff, Jeff Skinner, Craig Dobson, Angela Gilchrist, Joshua Adam Walker, Owen Gallagher, Kat Hill, Chris Cottom & Sarah Wallis.

Head to Paperboats.org/zine to read this and previous issues.

Into the Cairngorms

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The latest episode of the Paperboats podcast is out now, with author Merryn Glover Appleby

Merryn was born in Kathmandu to Australian missionary parents and grew up in Nepal, India and Pakistan. She settled in Scotland after travelling around the world and was the first Writer in Residence for the Cairngorms National Park in 2019. She co-hosts the Cairngorms-based Storyland Sessions with musician Hamish Napier, and is a regular Guardian Country Diary columnist. Her latest book is The Hidden Fires: A Cairngorms Journey with Nan Shepherd (Polygon, 2023).

In this episode Merryn describes her early life in Nepal and India, the deep connection she has found with the Cairngorms through her writing, her involvement with the Storyland Sessions community project, and her time as Writer in Residence for the Cairngorms National Park. Merryn also reads from The Hidden Fires, and gives an insight into how her spiritual faith informs her thinking on Nature and the Environment.

Head into the Cairngorms from your armchair, or wherever you like to listen, and stream from your chosen platform.

Head to Paperboats Podcasts to learn more.

Scotland’s Wild Deer Dilemma

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The latest episode of the Paperboats Podcast, released Friday March 07, features author and poet Leonie Charlton.

Leonie lives in Argyll and is currently undertaking a practice-based PhD exploring Scotland’s ‘wild deer dilemma’ through the University of the Highlands and Islands. Her publications include her debut poetry pamphlet Ten Minutes of Weather Away (Cinnamon Press, 2021), and her travel-memoir Marram (Sandstone Press, 2020), which was Waterstone’s Scottish Book of the Month for April 2022.

Leonie reads an extract from her diary essay ‘Fragments’, which first featured in Issue 1 of the Paperboats Zine and is included in the travel writing anthology There She Goes, edited by Esa Aldegheri and published by Saraband this month. Leonie discusses spiritual ecology, our lost connections with nature, and the way she approaches writing about the more-than-human world. She also talks about her PhD by practice and the conflict of interests inherent in deer management and re-wilding.

I had a very open and meaningful chat with Leonie that offers real insight into her work and the issues she writes about, so please do head to your preferred podcast platform, grab a coffee and take thirty minutes out to give it a listen. And if you enjoy it, follow and subscribe to keep up with all future episodes, released each month across all platforms.

Thank you for taking time to read this, and please do leave a comment if you enjoyed this podcast.

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!