Although many ecologists strive to share their research with the public, they often have little experience in the range of non-traditional formats available to them (e.g. poetry, novels, illustrated children’s books, visual art). By focusing only on scientific articles, scientists miss great opportunities to communicate their stories about nature to the public through non-scientific writing forms. Similarly, many writers in the literature community strive to write stories with “real” environmental issues but lack the scientific background to fully understand how to ensure the reality of the ecological story is captured whilst still engaging the audience. This means that most of the stories available to adults and children to learn about Australia’s ecology are either incorrect or overly scientific, despite new and truly interesting ecological, engaging and accurate stories being discovered daily. This one-day workshop aims to start ecologists on the journey of writing creatively for the public. The focus is on creating ecologically accurate children’s literature, as well as promoting collaboration between scientists and the arts world through bringing Australian novelists to work with the ecologists attending the workshop. Encouraging the development of more accurate and ecologically informative stories for children and adults will foster a greater appreciation for the environment and educate the public in important topics. This workshop will appeal to any ecologist with an interest in creative writing, art, story telling or science communication, and who are keen to either work with artists to communicate their science or perhaps become creative writers themselves. The workshop is the first of a series of annual workshops on conventional and novel approaches to science communication to be run under the auspices of the ESA Science Communication Research Chapter, building on successful symposia at the EcoTAS 2017 and ESA 2018 conferences.
