Our first Writer in Residence!
Tamsin Hopkins has been running workshops for Pens of the Earth since December 2025. We’re now formally welcoming her as our first Writer in Residence.
She will continue to run her regular online poetry workshops, with further workshops and events to be announced over the coming year. The aim is to continue facilitating writing opportunities that use a positive outlook to engage with the environment.
Having a writer in residence will further our involvement in literary activities, help to spread awareness of our work to a wider audience, and enable us to raise even more for the vital work of seagrass restoration in the Solent.
We wish her good luck and look forward to the programme she is developing.
Find out more about Tamsin’s workshops here.
Please sign up to our mailing list for notifications of her forthcoming workshops. This is your best way to ensure you don’t miss out on these opportunities.
Nicky Thomas (& forthcoming book club events)!
At the start of June, we welcomed Nicky Thomas to the Comms Team, specifically to help with public speaking outreach events.
Nicky is a marine biologist who blogs about the latest Marine Science as ‘One World’ on Youtube.
She is also on Instagram.
Nicky brings a depth of knowledge about seagrass restoration and marine environmentalism which is a wonderful asset. She’s also a Solent Seagrass Restoration Project volunteer.
Nicky’s first adventure with us was the Portsmouth Express FM interview, where she spoke wonderfully well about seagrass restoration and her experience of being a ‘Wilder Voice’ recording artist.
Nicky, Casey (Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust [HIWWT]) and Helen are working with Clare Liddell at Portsmouth libraries to develop a series of collaborative Solent Seagrass Restoration Project/Wild Seas, Wilder Cities book club events. The first three will take place in Autumn this year. A larger event will take place at next year’s Bookfest.
Nicky, Casey and Helen will be developing the book club presentation and programme and trialling it at the first book club event on August 19th.
We’re hoping to roll the model out to Hampshire libraries next year.
Rachel Birchley
Rachel has been volunteering with us and running our Facebook page for a number of years. Three months ago we were delighted to welcome her as a ‘consultant’. Consultants join the committee for strategic discussions, as opposed to day to day business.
Rachel’s knowledge and expertise in the literary/environmental arena make her a wonderful addition to our core team. Since joining as consultant Rachel has already introduced us to the Langstone Loop project and co-run a Langstone Loop workshop with Vin Adams.
Collaborations, Support & Formalising Our Fundraising Agreement with HIWWT
Support for the Pens Committee
Organisationally and administrationally we are stretched thin. It’s been a tough year for us, and a number of organisational activities (such as formally offering membership to our Wilder Voices), taking minutes at meetings, and following up on book sales with outlets (on a regular basis!) have not been possible.
Thanks to a suggestion from Vin, we are now receiving some support/mentoring from Portsmouth Business Services Support (PBSS). Initially, this is to help us formalise our fundraising arrangement with HIWWT (more info below). However, following this we’re hoping to explore ways to get more organisation/admin support (possibly via the volunteer bureau Hive).
In the meantime, if anyone can offer admin support, please get in touch! Even a small amount of volunteer time would make a difference.
Formalising our Fundraising Agreement & collaboration with HIWWT
The Pens committee are working with PBSS advisor Grace Keppel and Luke Manderill (fundraising manager, HIWWT) to formalise our fundraising agreement. In effect this will mean that HMRC will recognise us as ‘fundraising on behalf of a charity.’
A draft written agreement is currently under-review. As a result of this formalisation links to the Pens of the Earth audiobook page (which also links to our paperback) will be added to the HIWWT’s partnership and seagrass restoration pages. It also means they can display our logo; and we can display theirs.
We are also working closely with HIWWT’s engagement team to promote awareness of Wild Seas, Wilder Cities both as book and audiobook. More details of this below.
Langstone Loop Collaboration
Thanks to Rachel Birchley, we’re thrilled to be collaborating with the Langstone Loop project to inspire writers to create micro-fiction and poetry based on the local settings and history of the Langstone Loop coastal path.
The Langstone Loop workshop on 19th May, led by Vin Adams and Rachel Birchley with speaker Rob Bailey (‘Friends of Langstone Harbour’ and founder of the Clean Harbours Partnership), inspired writers to develop short poems amd micro-stories for inclusion in the Langstone Loop QR Sign Trail and/or the Wild Seas, Wilder Cities audiobook showcase, 29th June 2026.
Pieces created at this workshop were performed at the audiobook showcase by Alison Habens, Rachel Birchley, Sue Spiers, Andrew Larder, Suzanne Parekh and Christine Lawrence.
Thanks to Vin A and Rachel Birchley for a wonderfully inspiring workshop.
Portsmouth City of Culture 2029 Consultations
Since Dec 2025, Helen Salsbury and Rachel Birchley have been are representing Pens of the Earth, and environmental/literary cross-over concepts for the city, at a number of Portsmouth City of Culture working groups and via emailed content.
Portsmouth has now been longlisted! We will be participating in the next round of consultations in July this year. This is a huge opportunity to make a significant difference to life in Portsmouth and we’re keen to raise the banner for environmental cultural change and to seek new opportunities for Pens of the Earth involvement.
More info here.
Wild Seas, Wilder Cities audiobook
Recording
- Funded by Portsmouth Creates.
- Recorded and wonderfully well supported by Casemates Studios.
- 50 Wilder Voices from all walks of life took part. Thank you!
- Thanks to all involved in supporting, participating, organising, promoting, reviewing, and publishing to our sales platforms.
- Write up here.
Launches: June and October!
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust be hosting an online audiobook launch on the evening of Wed 7th October. It was agreed at our recent Comms-team meeting that a two-stage approach to launching and promoting our audiobook would enable us to reach to a wider audience.
Wilder Seas, Wilder Cities Audiobook Showcase, Portsmouth Guildhall, 29th June
This was a huge celebration of the ‘Wilder Voices’, and of community action; with speeches from: Toby Litt, Ellie Parker and Rob Bailey (Langstone Loop), a chance to hear many of the Wilder Voices, new material and song.
A big thank you to the Guildhall, everyone who attended and supported, and all those who took to the stage. Especial thanks to our Compere, Vin Adams, Motiv8 and Christine Lawrence, our hand-crafters – Christina Moran, Janet Brown, Nicola Humphreys and Jane Andreoli – and our sales team Loree Westron and Jane Andreoli.
Big thanks to Jackie Green for writing up this event and submitting her review to The Portsmouth Magazine and Portsmouth’s The News. And thank you to everyone who took photos and shared them on Facebook – and who helped to promote the showcase in advance.
The showcase raised £558.50 for the Solent Seagrass Restoration Project!
- Ticket sales: £300
- Paperback sales of Wild Seas, Wilder Cities: £100
- Hand crafted cards and notebooks: £108.50
- Donation: £50
Online Sales are Tricky, and Your Voices Matter!
Sales of the audiobook are slow, so far.
We need everyone’s help to build momentum. So please keep spreading the word and the excitement, and encouraging people to visit our audiobook page and to buy directly from us if they can – as this raises a whopping 95% for seagrass restoration – and to leave reviews if they can’t.
HIWWT Hosted Online Audiobook Launch Wed, October 7th 2026
The second launch will provide a focal point for raising awareness. It’s an opportunity to expand our online reach.
Ways you can help:
- Reviews: online sales depend heavily on ‘reviews’. Please encourage people to leave reviews. It will make a big difference to the success of our autumn launch if we already have a good number of reviews on Goodreads/Amazon and Payhip.
- Thanks to FC Malby and Graham Brown who have offered interview podcast and magazine article opportunities. We look forward to taking you up on these.
- Want to write an article, share a podcast, do an interview, tell your friends? All of these things are useful.
- We have a number of ‘book club’ events coming up in the autumn and next year. Nearer the time, we’ll be sending out an invite to get involved.
Our intention is to start building momentum from Late August/September onwards.