Writing & Thriving Conversations: Camilla Nelson Interview

Written By Sally-Shakti Willow

‘Becoming Writing’

In this video, Sally-Shakti Willow speaks with Artist and Writer Camilla Nelson about Writing-as-Process, Eco-Poetics, and Inter-Species Co-Creation!

Camilla Nelson’s work explores the materiality of language - particularly in relation to the other-than-human - in page-based poetry, soundwork, installation and performance.

She is founding editor of Singing Apple Press, a small independent press that produces hand-crafted, limited edition poem-prints, books and other objects.

Her poetry collections include Apples & Other Languages (long-listed for the Melita Hume Poetry Prize, 2015; published by Knives Forks and Spoons, 2017), A Yarn Er Narrative (Contraband Books, 2019) and EPIC (Guillemot Press, 2021).

Sally-Shakti Willow

Writing my PhD in Utopian Poetics showed me what it means to be a writer. I wrote four books of poetry and a 50,000 word thesis, and I started journaling as a way to ground and heal myself.

While I was studying, I also wrote and maintained the Contemporary Small Press website, writing regular reviews of new fiction and poetry published by small presses. I was on the judging panel for the 2018 Republic of Consciousness Prize for literary fiction from the small presses. So I was reading a lot of great writing too. And I co-developed and taught a series of workshops called WELLBEING WHILE WRITING for doctoral researchers at the University of Westminster.

WELLBEING WHILE WRITING used practical techniques from Creative Writing pedagogy to support PhD students of all disciplines with the work of WRITING their thesis. I also used my knowledge and experience of yoga and meditation to provide MOVING & BREATHING FOR WELLBEING workshops to graduate students at the University.

I’ve been teaching English since 2004 and I’ve been teaching Creative Writing at the University of Westminster since 2017.

https://www.writingthriving.com
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