Little Toller to publish crowdfunding-backed nature anthology

Little Toller Books will publish an anthology of writing about nature and place, Going to Ground, and has launched a crowdfunding campaign to support the publication. 

The collection of prose and poetry will be drawn from the indie press’ online journal The Clearing and published in spring 2024.  

It includes contributions from writers including Kerri ní Dochartaigh, Tim Dee, Nancy Campbell, Amina Khan, Ann Lingard, Alex Woodcock, Louisa Adjoa Parker, Kathleen Jamie, Tim Hannigan and Raine Geoghegan. 

The Clearing began in 2013, and has published more than 400 essays, poems, films, photography and the occasional podcast, and has featured hundreds of contributors, at all stages in their careers. 

To raise funds to print the book, Little Toller has launched a crowdfunding campaign which has already reached over £2,000 within a few days. 

Little Toller bookseller and editor Jon Woolcott will edit the anthology. He said: “Some writers whose first published work was on The Clearing have gone on to wonderful careers, so we’re especially proud to celebrate that, and also, with this first anthology, to showcase some extraordinary new talent for a new audience.  

“Over the years we’ve been astonished at the variety of work which we’ve been able to publish. We’ve always taken a broad approach – the writing on The Clearing comes from many perspectives: the rural, suburban, urban, bucolic, industrial and post-industrial; we’ve specifically avoided some of the tropes of nature writing and hope that Going to Ground is original, fresh and occasionally surprising.” 

Little Toller is planning for the book to be the first in a series of anthologies of writing from The Clearing, with each new edition looking at different themes.  

Woolcott added: “It’s such a rich archive of writing, with hundreds of essays, poems, films, graphic works and podcasts featuring interviews with writers that we would really like to bring to wider attention by anthologising the work.” 

To read work from The Clearing click here. For more information please contact jon@littletoller.co.uk.