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Writing poetry for Nature Connection and Wellbeing

29th July, 5th August & 26th August 2026

Cavendish Building, Agard Street, Derby

Explore how poetry can help restore these dimensions of experience, reconnecting us to nature, to attention, and to ourselves.

In an age defined by constant connectivity, many of us feel increasingly disconnected from our bodies, from one another, and from the natural world. In The Anxious Generation, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt explores how screen-based life has reshaped our experience of attention, community, and well-being. He points to what may be missing from contemporary life: stillness, shared meaning, embodiment, awe, and a sense of belonging beyond the self. This course explores the idea that nature connection is not a luxury but a necessity for both human well-being and environmental awareness.

What to expect

This course combines discussion, reflection, and creative practice across three sessions:

Day 1 - Wednesday 29th July, 10 am - 2 pm
Ideas and Inspirations: An indoor seminar exploring key concepts from Haidt, Richardson, and contemporary nature writing. You’ll be introduced to a range of texts and approaches that frame the course.

Day 2 - Wednesday 5th August, 10 am - 2 pm
Writing in the Field: A guided outdoor workshop in Markeaton Park. Through structured exercises, you’ll record sensory, emotional, and aesthetic responses to the environment—working directly with the five pathways to connection.

Day 3 - Wednesday 26th August, 10 am - 2 pm
Crafting and Sharing: A supportive workshop session where you’ll develop your notes or first drafts into original pieces of writing. We’ll share work in a safe, supportive environment, reflect on the process, and explore how writing can sustain long-term nature connectedness.

Drawing on Miles Richardson’s Reconnection (2024), this course takes seriously the idea that nature connection is not a luxury but a necessity for both human well-being and environmental awareness. Miles Richardson identifies five key pathways to connection:

  • The senses (noticing and inhabiting the present moment)
  • Emotion (feeling with and through the natural world)
  • Beauty (responding to form, pattern, and wonder)
  • Meaning (finding significance beyond utility)
  • Compassion (developing care for the more-than-human world)

Rather than approaching nature as abstract knowledge, we will explore how creative practice, especially poetry, can activate these pathways directly.

At the same time, writers such as Robert Macfarlane have described modern life as increasingly disembodied and “touchless”, marked by a withdrawal from lived, sensory experience. One task of contemporary nature writing, then, is to restore attention to the physical world of living presences to reawaken our capacity for awe.

Across the course, you will engage with a range of contemporary and historical approaches to nature writing, including:

  • Traditions rooted in European Romanticism
  • Influences from Eastern philosophies, including Taoism and Buddhism
  • Recent experimental and hybrid forms

Together, we will ask: How can writing help us reconnect? What kinds of attention make that reconnection possible?

  • To understand the psychological construct of nature connection and identify the 5 pathways to nature connection
  • To understand key movements in nature poetry, including influence from Eastern philosophy and spiritual/creative practice
  • To practice recording sensory, emotional, and aesthetic experiences of nature
  • To practice writing poetry (outdoors), with a view to improving nature connection and wellbeing
  • Practical tools for deepening your attention to nature
  • Insight into contemporary nature writing and ecopoetics
  • A set of creative practices you can continue beyond the course
  • Your own original writing is rooted in place, perception, and connection

Session Facilitator

Matthew Clegg is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Derby and has also taught for the University of Sheffield (Adult Education) and The Open College of the Arts. His poetry collections include Lost Between Stations (2010), West North East (2013), The Navigators (2015), and West North East (2018), published by Longbarrow Press. He received an Eric Gregory Award (1997) and a Year of the Artist Award (2000), and was Poet in Residence at the Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere (1999–2001). A former deputy chair of the Ted Hughes Festival (Mexborough), he's currently working on a three-panel haibun sequence exploring nature connection during the COVID-19 pandemic and co-leads public seminars on Gerard Manley Hopkins and R.S. Thomas - poets who link nature connection and spirituality in the context of the modern world.

Matt Clegg

Prerequisites

This course is open to anyone curious about the relationship between writing, wellbeing, and the natural world. No prior experience of poetry writing is required, just a willingness to slow down, pay attention, and explore.

Price

£100 (VAT exempt) per person, per day
£300 (VAT exempt) per person, full 3-day course

Close up of a black and orange bee crawling over purple lavender heads

Reconnect. Rediscover attention. Write your way back to the living world.

We're looking forward to welcoming you!

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