Nina Mingya Powles

Nature Writing

Winner of the inaugural Nan Shepherd Prize, Nina Mingya Powles discusses Small Bodies of Water, periods, nature writing and colonialism

Interview: Katie Goh

“When it comes to nature writing, we tend to imagine people traipsing through fields, not so much teenage girls going to the beach at the weekend,” says Nina Mingya Powles with a laugh. “But that’s changing – and for the better!” Powles is discussing Small Bodies of Water, her new collection of essays and winner of the inaugural Nan Shepherd Prize. The book covers a range of subjects, including orcas, the climate crisis, earthquakes, the short stories of Katherine Mansfield, Studio Ghibli movies, cycling through the streets of Shanghai, wandering the rainforests of Borneo and, yes, crucially, the lives of teenage girls. “I love writing about adolescence and I was thinking about teenage experiences of swimming,” says Powles. “For me – and others might relate – periods are so tied to that and such a source of anxiety.” One of Powles’ essays explores the limited canon of periods in nature writing. “When I was initially writing that piece I could hardly find any references to periods. But now that’s changing and there are some amazing works of nature writing by women and non-binary people who are starting to explore these things. I love that that essay could be in a book that’s broadly being labelled as nature writing.” As Powles notes, the Nan Shepherd Prize was launched to broaden definitions of what nature writing can be. Best known as a poet, Powles’ essays swim between travel writing, memoir, cultural criticism, food writing and historical research. “I don’t know if I can claim being called a nature writer because it’s only one part of what I do, but that’s okay! I love that the book is able to hold all these different things but also sit on a nature writing table in a bookshop. I also think it’s becoming increasingly impossible to avoid writing about the way the natural world is changing due to the climate crisis, so maybe a lot of us who didn’t previously think of ourselves as nature writers are becoming them.” Although Small Bodies of Water covers a range of subjects, what connects the essays is the titular water. “As I was writing the proposal for the Nan Shepherd Prize, I realised that I wanted to write more about swimming and Photo: Sophie Davidson climate change which to me is intimately connected to coastal environments,” explains Powles. “Water is a rich, connective force and such a broad theme. I loved that it took me to different, sometimes unexpected places, like rainforests and islands. The language we use to speak about water pulls me in. The idea of a body of water: what are the edges of a body of water, where does it stop and where does it begin?” Born in Aotearoa New Zealand, Powles partly grew up in China, first learned to swim in Borneo and now lives in London. The time Powles spent living between these places is explored throughout Small Bodies of Water, as are the languages and sounds of different places. Chinese characters, or Hanzi, frequently appear in Powles’ essays. “I was really encouraged to include Mandarin and Hakka after reading Mary Jean Chan’s poems,” says Powles. “She said she deliberately didn’t want to translate herself for the reader – including adding an italics or glossary – because you’re making an assumption about your readers. It made me think that I could write in a combination of languages and they could co-exist together.” Language is an important factor in how we understand nature, particularly how we understand the history of nature and colonialism which Powles explores in her book. “While researching, I would come up against the Latin name for a species as the ‘real’ name for it,” she says. “I was interested in finding the Mandarin name or the Māori name and that brought up big questions about empire, colonialism and white supremacy which are deeply connected to our relationship with nature.” Nature and travel writing has a history of ignoring or glossing over these questions. “I got really fed up with the genre of writing which is: white person goes abroad and reports back on their experience of finding themselves. Of course travel writing can be personal, but it’s also political. For me, writing about nature and colonialism is inseparable because I’m literally a product of the colonialism of different places.” Nature writing, as a genre, is also being forced to reckon with the climate crisis which, again, is also intrinsically connected to colonial histories. In one essay, Powles references a classmate who once asked in a creative writing class: “How do you write about nature without it being an elegy?” “I didn’t feel like I had much to add to writing about the crisis,” says Powles. “I just couldn’t avoid writing about it. I had to find a way to record the grief and the slow changes that I was beginning to perceive around me. It’s a small action to record what’s happening in the world but something that I could do in a world where we often feel powerless. But the book is also about joy and reclamation. I hope it’s not all an elegy, but explores all different aspects of our relationship to nature.”

Small Bodies of Water is published by Canongate on 5 Aug

canongate.co.uk

Nina Mingya Powles appears at Edinburgh International Book Festival, Edinburgh College of Art, 15 Aug, 2.15pm

Onwards and Upwards

As the Edinburgh International Book Festival returns for 2021 in a new location with a new hybrid set-up, we dive into the highlights of their programme, which looks to celebrate the ideas and stories for a changing world

Words: Heather McDaid

Aptly focusing on ideas and stories for a changing world for 2021, the Edinburgh International Book Festival sees many alterations for this new iteration. First, its location, moving from Charlotte Square to a new home at Edinburgh College of Art; second, it’s reshaping accessibility by offering a fully hybrid experience, with all events able to be attended in-person and virtually, the latter pay what you can. Its heart is in Edinburgh, but it’s open to the world. After a year that has simultaneously kept people apart and brought many closer than ever, the festival is hosting a string of brilliant events in this new experimental year. Graeme Armstrong, Jenni Fagan and Caleb Femi join forces (14 Aug, 1pm) to discuss what home and community mean in a post-pandemic world. Femi also joins novelist Tice Cin to discuss his incredible debut collection Poor (15 Aug, 2.30pm) and ‘the art of the people’ – poetry. The Skinny is sponsoring Torrey Photo: Courtesy of Caleb Femi Peters’ event as she discusses Detransition, Baby with Extra Teeth co-founder Heather Parry (14 Aug, 5.30pm). A tale of motherhood, relationships and chosen family, the book circles Reese, a trans woman in her 30s; Ames, her former lover who has detransitioned; and the unplanned pregnancy of Ames’ cis girlfriend, Katrina. A brilliant novel on the complexities of flawed people wrestling with concepts of family in a flawed world. The inaugural winner of the Nan Shepherd Prize for Nature Writing, Nina Caleb Femi Mingya Powles will appear alongside Julian Aguon (15 Aug, 2.15pm), who witnessed first-hand the impact of globalisation and colonialism on the island of Guam; they will discuss Small Bodies of Water and The Properties of Perpetual Lights respectively and the intersections of the personal and political. On debuts, Caleb Azumah Nelson will discuss Open Water (16 Aug, 1pm), where he explores culture, masculinity, art and identity in a tale of falling in and out of love, vulnerability, and being seen – of feelings that words cannot articulate. An entrancing and lyrical book, it aches to read, and will – it’s safe to say – be one to watch. Another is Shola von Reinhold (17 Aug, 2.30pm), whose novel LOTE – following Mathilda, who does not see herself represented in the archives of the National Portrait Gallery, and her subsequent discovery of the ‘forgotten’ Black Scottish poet Hermia Drumm – won the Republic of Consciousness Prize. They will join Jamie Crewe who has created a new short film based on the novel, where the duo will discuss the exquisite world from the pages.

Salena Godden’s debut novel Mrs Death Misses Death (17 Aug, 4pm) reimagines death not as a faceless grim reaper, but as a shapeshifting, working class Black woman. Exhausted, she wants to unload her stories and write her memoirs. Death is all around at present, but in Godden’s hands it is both darkly funny and deeply moving in one sweep. Elsewhere, Harry Josephine Giles describes Deep Wheel Orcadia – the first full-length novel written in Orcadian dialect in over half a century – as ‘a gay space communist fantasy written in a small language and about the small peace of small things’. Ely Percy’s Duck Feet sits firmly in Renfrew, following the coming-ofage tale of Kirsty Campbell, and the duo will discuss their brilliant novels and put the joy of writing in their dialect under the microscope (18 Aug, 4pm).

Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House navigates the complexities of abuse in queer relationships, and her own experience of the highs of love and desire to the torment, both overt and insidious. Archiving, she says, is political, and about power: who gets to shape the narrative of histories. One not to miss (18 Aug, 7pm).

Raven Leilani’s Luster has stolen the show for many readers this year, a sharp tale on contemporary life, and she joins Patricia Lockwood, whose genre-defying No One Is Talking About This was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize (19 Aug, 7.15pm), while Tice Cin (25 Aug, 1pm) showcases Keeping the House, which follows Damla, a Turkish-Cypriot girl growing up in North London, and the lives of three generations of women in the aftermath of Cyprus’ conflict. While Unbound has been shelved for the time being, we’ll always have time for a Post-Apocalyptic Cabaret (28 Aug, 8.30pm). Curated by Hysteria’s Mae Diansangu and Hanna Louise, they will host an electrifying mix of performers from song, spoken word and drag, for an unmissable Manifesto for a New World Order. The Good Grief! Salon is where grief comes glittered, gritty, and gutsy, according to Michael Pedersen (29 Aug, 8.30pm). After the past year, the evening will feature a brilliant line-up of writers and musicians to celebrate the love in the things we’ve lost or are missing. A light in the dark. And, if we’re talking books and Scotland, Shuggie Bain would always be there. Douglas Stuart will be beaming in from New York to talk to the First Minister about the novel that changed his life, winning the Booker Prize. Based on his own upbringing in a family facing addiction, he recounts his own coming-of-age in Glasgow and beyond (30 Aug, 8:30pm). The world is changing, and here’s just a handful of events to lead you on the way.

Nina Mingya Powles

Edinburgh International Book Festival, Edinburgh College of Art and online, 14-30 Aug