How do we think about the things we have lost? How can we use what we know about extinctions – cultural, biological and industrial – to reconnect with nature?

Challenger is fascinated with the idea of extinction. From our destruction of the natural world to the human cultures that are rapidly dying out, she explores these disappearances and why they should concern us. How have we become destructive to our environment? How do we respond emotionally? And how might these responses might shape our future relationship with nature?

Whilst researching her latest book, Melanie traveled to the abandoned whaling stations of South Georgia, the melting icescape of Antarctica and the Inuit camps of the Arctic, where she traced the links between human activities and environmental collapse.

She’ll draw on those experiences to discuss the wider implications of our estrangement from natural world.

Melanie Challenger is a freelance writer. She is the author of ‘Galatea’, her award-winning first collection of poems, and co-author, with Zlata Filipovic, of ‘Stolen Voices’, a history of twentieth century conflict compiled through war diaries. During her research for ‘On Extinction’, she was a Fellow of the AHRC Centre for the Evolution of Cultural Diversity at University College London from 2007-2010 and International Fellow at the British Antarctic Survey for International Polar Year 2007-2008. Her work was also a recipient of the British Council Darwin Awards