This autumn we are piloting an online book club discussing written pieces featured in Issue 21 released in April this year. The call out for this book was themed around confluence – asking questions such as: what meetings of cultures, environments, identities, species and planetary crises are shaping the times we are living in? And how do we navigate them?
This book club will be a space for readers of Dark Mountain to come together to discuss themes in this issue, and to connect around the work that we publish and to hear the voices and thoughts of others who are finding meaning in our books.
This pilot is also an opportunity for the Dark Mountain team to test the waters and find out about the appetite for online gathering places for our readers, to see what can happen when meet and to create a space where written words can come alive in conversation and discussion.
*Please note the format for this event has changed since we first announced it and is now ONE event instead of THREE*
Book Club : Tuesday 13th December Co-hosted by Ava Osbiston and Nick Hunt that will include opportunities to discuss a few different themes. The advised reading in preparation for the group is grouped into three themes that we will make space for in the session:
Spaces shared by animals and humans: ‘Let Them Tell You’ by Nancy Lord and ‘Morris’ by Jane Smith.
Adventure and freedom: ‘Tough Times for Wandering Luddites’ by Nathanael Bonnell and ‘Convergences’ by Hannah Hindley.
And anticipating change: ‘The Unfathomable Heart’ by Stephanie Krzywonos and ‘The Lunatical’ by Ceda Parkinson.
Practical information
The session will cost £12 per person (plus Eventbrite booking fee).
The group will be limited to 20 people.
Please note you will need to own a copy of Dark Mountain: Issue 21 and to have read the specified pieces before the club. We are choosing to pilot this session with the issue published earlier in the year so that we can guarantee that everybody has had the opportunity to receive and read the pieces we will be discussing.
To apply to take part in this pilot book club session please complete this form and if accepted you will be sent a link to book and pay for your place. Deadlines for application close at 5pm 6th December.
About your hosts
Dark Mountain’s Book Club will be hosted Ava Osbiston who has been a core member of the Dark Mountain editorial team since 2015, helping make the books happen and coordinating and organising many of our events. She is an artist and Integral Development Coach.
Nick is a writer and walker. His non-fiction books include Outlandish, about walking four of Europe’s ‘unlikely landscapes’, Where the Wild Winds Are, which tells the story of four walks following Europe’s named winds, Walking the Woods and the Water, about a 2,500-mile walk from Holland to Istanbul, and The Parakeeting of London, a work of gonzo ornithology about feral ring-necked parakeets. His fiction includes Loss Soup and Other Stories and a forthcoming novel.
He has contributed short stories and essays to Dark Mountain since Issue 1, and is now an editor and co-director of the project. He also performs as a storyteller. Currently he lives in Bristol.
If you have any questions or issues with applying please email editorial@dark-mountain.net.
IMAGE: Meander by Cecily Eno (cover artwork for Issue 21).