Echoes Lit Fest Roundtable: Writing Nature as Literary Activism

About

Join us for the Echoes Literature Festival roundtable discussion. This year's theme, 'writing nature as literary activism', chaired by Fiona Williams, will include a rich and thought-provoking conversation from award winning authors Kim Squirrell and Louisa Adjoa Parker, both of whom have writing in Future Rural, a nature anthology which looks at the future of the countryside. Each explore themes of nature through their work.

Fiona Williams is a writer of literary fiction and her debut novel The House of Broken Bricks was published by Faber in 2024. She is the winner of the 2021 Bridport Prize First Novel Award and was shortlisted for the 2025 Diverse Book Awards. Fiona is currently the Ambassador of the Exeter Novel Award, and was selected as one of the National Centre for Writing's ILX 10: Rising Stars of UK Writing 2025/26. She is currently completing a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Exeter, where her writing focuses primarily on the relationships between identity, belonging, nature and landscape.

Kim Squirrell is a writer and artist of Caribbean and Irish heritage based in rural Dorset. A University of Exeter graduate in Fine Art and English, her interdisciplinary work spans environmental theatre, performance, and installation, alongside experiential storytelling practices. Her writing appears in journals such as Poetry Review and Stand, and she was shortlisted for the James Berry Poetry Prize (2021). She has won the Bridport Prize Dorset Award and a Sky Arts RSL Writers Award, and was Literature Works Quay Words Writer in Residence (2022).

Louisa Adjoa Parker is a writer and poet of English-Ghanaian heritage living in south west England. She has written several poetry collections, including How to wear a skin, a short story collection, Stay with me, and a poetry pamphlet, She can still sing. Her work has been highly commended by the Forward Prize; twice shortlisted by the Bridport Prize; and her grief poem, Kindness, was commended by the National Poetry Competition 2019.

Copies of Fiona, Louisa and Kim's books will be available to purchase at the event.