Hello! Welcome to my site.

My name is Emma McKenzie. I am a writer and artist living in the beautiful city of York. I specialise in nature based writing, but I am also interested in poetry, prose and life writing. I have previously used creative writing as a therapeutic tool in my career as an occupational therapist working in mental health and recovery services. My journey in teaching creative writing started by running eco-therapy writing classes at the fabulous St Nicks nature reserve eco-therapy programme in York (2014 – 2021). I now work freelance to deliver workshops and writing classes, alongside creating my own work. I am currently also studying for a PhD in Humanities, check out the rest of my site for more info.

This site is called Life At Base Camp because I strongly believe that life is one big adventure! Base Camp is my home, the place I have my adventures from and to which I return to write. You can read more about my nature based finds and general adventures on the Field Notes pages which are my personal blog.

I am an active member of Naturewrights – a nature based collective group of writers and artists. Naturewrights was set up independently by a group of my students from the Field Studies Council, I was so impressed with their work that I asked to join and now help Nicky Hutchison (the founder) to lead it.

New Publication: Seeds of Promise – An Anthology of Nature Writing

It’s finally here! Our long awaited Seeds of Promise anthology. The work was contributed by students who have attended the Field Studies Council nature courses (see events page for more details). You can buy Seeds of Promise here on amazon, all proceeds go to charity.

Current news and events 2023:

This year I will be supporting an online nature writing community NatureWrights to develop workshop opportunities and publications. NatureWrights was set up by a group of writers who attended my field studies council courses, our mission is to reimagine the natural world through words, images, art and photographs. We hope to have a webpage to share soon!

I also have current creative writing courses running with the Field Studies Council during 2023 in Exploring Nature Writing and Developing Nature Writing.

For more info please visit: https://www.field-studies-council.org/?s=Exploring+Nature+Writing

Feedback from participants:

‘The course has been so interesting and inspiring. Your support and teaching has been really caring and helpful. This was my first writing course and I was quite nervous before starting, but the course was always a little drop of calm and brightness in the week, I’m already missing it! ‘(Phoebe)

‘The courses have been fab, streets ahead of others I have taken in the past. I have written more in a short space of time than I expected and reading everyone else’s writing has kept my spirits up.’ (Hilary)

All work on this site is copyrighted to the author Emma McKenzie. No posts may be published or used for commercial use without first contacting the author for full permission to be granted.