About the Event
Join us for a drinks reception to celebrate the publication of a new poetry anthology, Nature Matters: Vital Poems from the Global Majority, a gathering of African, Asian and Caribbean diaspora writing on environmental themes. The book launch will be an opportunity to meet fellow poetry lovers and hear from some of the contributors, including editors Mona Arshi and Karen McCarthy Woolf who will introduce a short film of readings from the book, alongside Lavinia Singer (Editor, Poetry).
There has been a welcome surge of nature writing in recent years. Yet this has raised questions as to whose voices are privileged and heard in a space predominantly occupied by Western European traditions and authors. In Nature Matters, poets Mona Arshi and Karen McCarthy Woolf seek to redress this imbalance. Their genre-enriching anthology presents brand-new commissions alongside formative works from the past fifty years that invite us to reconsider nature poetry from global-majority perspectives. Image-rich and formally diverse, the poems explore fundamental and ecological themes including the climate crisis and the Anthropocene; urban nature, solitude and alienation; protest and radical empathy; Indigenous wisdom and alternative histories.
What to Expect
- This event is taking place at Faber’s premises at The Bindery, 51 Hatton Garden, London EC1N 8HN.
- Age guidance: this event is suitable for ages 18+.
- The nearest underground stations are Chancery Lane Station (Central line) and Farringdon Station (Circle, Elizabeth, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines).
- Doors will open at 6.30 p.m.
- Ticket price includes a glass of wine or a soft drink.
- There will be a bookshop open with signed books available by card payment only.
- A concessionary rate of £5 off tickets is available for anyone who is a student, unemployed, low-waged, low-pensioned or who considers the cost of the event a barrier to attending. Use code Concession5 in the promo box in the checkout.
- The Bindery is fully accessible, but if you have any building access requirements please let us know in advance by emailing members@faber.co.uk, so we can assist you.
- Ticket buyers requiring assistance at the event can get a free ticket for a carer by emailing members@faber.co.uk
- Please note that we film our events for archive purposes and sometimes to share online. Our camera records the stage and may record the backs of heads of people sitting in the front row.
- This is a ticketless event - there will be a guest list with your name and the number of tickets you have bought.
About the Authors
Mona Arshi’s poetry collections include Small Hands (Liverpool University Press, 2015), Dear Big Gods (Liverpool University Press, 2019) and Mouth (Chatto & Windus, 2025). She was poet in residence at Cley Marshes, Norfolk, in 2020 and a fellow in the creative arts at Trinity College, Cambridge.
About the Authors
Karen McCarthy Woolf was poet in residence at the Promise Institute for Human Rights as a postdoctoral Fulbright Scholar at UCLA and is an RSL/Jerwood Poetry Fellow. Her books include An Aviary of Small Birds (Carcanet Press, 2014), Seasonal Disturbances (Carcanet Press, 2017) and Top Doll (Dialogue Books, 2024).
Buy the Book
Revitalising conversations around environmentalism and ecopoetics, this new gathering of African, Asian and Caribbean diaspora voices is both urgent and inspirational.