From stolen Orwell to the Camino: Why this author embraced "Dirty Nature Writing"

Author Ken Wilson

Ken Wilson is a settler who grew up in the Haldimand Tract in southwestern Ontario. He lives on Treaty 4 territory in oskana kâ-asastêki (Regina, Saskatchewan), where he is an assistant professor in the Department of English and Creative Writing at the University of Regina.

His new book, Walking the Bypass: Notes on Place from the Side of the Road, is his first; its manuscript won the 2022 City of Regina Writing Award. His second, Walking Well, will appear in 2026. Find more of Ken's writing at Walking and Writing.

The power of long walks and the lesson of stolen orwell

OCW: What life experiences have shaped your writing style?

KW: Two experiences—an encounter with a strange book, and a long walk—have shaped my writing style.

When I was 14 years old, I stole my aunt’s copy of George Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier. I had read Animal Farm and 1984, so I knew his name. For some reason, his account of the housing crisis in northern England during the 1930s, and his eccentric discussion of left-wing politics in that decade fascinated me. I think the detail of his descriptions, particularly in his essay about coal mining, taught me valuable lessons about writing.

Years later, when I confessed my theft, my aunt laughed and said I could keep the book. She hadn’t even missed it! I ended up reading all of Orwell’s books, and I emulated his style until I began to find my own.

The year I turned 50, I walked the Camino de Santiago. During those five weeks of gravel tracks and hills, bright sun and rain, I had a lot of time to think, and I decided to focus my energies on writing. I had always wanted to write, but I’d always been afraid I wouldn’t succeed, and for that reason I resisted committing to my practice. During that journey, I realized it was time to put that fear aside and try.

Shifting genres: From playwriting to creative nonfiction and the value of community

OCW: Has your writing evolved over the years? If so, how has this happened? Through writing experience? By reading a lot? From writing courses, writing communities, or something else?

KW: I’ve always read a lot, and I have the English degrees to prove it. I’ve published academic articles and taught writing courses, but as I’ve confessed, for a long time I felt that writing creatively was beyond my capacity.

When my anxiety about my writing abilities began to lift, I decided I was a playwright, despite my minimal theatre background. I wrote some text for a site-specific performance, a stage play that was produced at the Ottawa Fringe Festival and won a few awards, and an audio play. I even finished an MFA in playwriting. But after I graduated, my writing almost immediately shifted to creative nonfiction.

Publishing an essay, or even a book, is so much easier than getting a play produced, because it takes fewer resources. I’m trying to write poetry, too; creative nonfiction and poetry are connected, since both often use material from their authors’ lives. Someday I’m going to try writing fiction, which will give me a chance to put what I learned about writing plays to use.

I’ve benefitted from many excellent writing instructors: Michael Trussler, Catherine Banks, Lorri Neilsen Glenn, Jenna Butler, and Yvonne Blomer, to name just a few. But being in Tanis MacDonald’s creative-nonfiction workshop at Sage Hill Writing Experience in 2020 changed everything for me. That group of incredibly talented writers from across Canada has continued to meet regularly on Zoom. The feedback I get during our meetings is important, but so is the sense of community and connection belonging to that group creates for me.

Dirty Nature Writing: Connecting with the world without flinching

OCW: Can you trace any common themes across your writing?

KW: In the past few years, I’ve tended to focus on the relationships people have with the world around them—not just the natural world, though, because I’m particularly interested in what David Huebert and Tom Cull’s definition of “dirty nature writing”: writing that looks without flinching at the effects that our extractive way of living has on the environment.

Walking the Bypass, by Ken Wilson

My first book, Walking the Bypass, might be seen as an example of “dirty nature writing,” since I try to connect with the side of a highway as a place in it. I typically explore the world by walking, so my writing often begins with a journey on foot, and so walking is another theme my work explores.

OCW: Which authors and/or types of books do you like to read? I read as much poetry and creative nonfiction as I can. Reading fiction is only an occasional joy at the moment. There isn’t enough time to get to every book I want to, but I try to read something every day.

My favourite authors change as I discover new ones. At the moment, Robert Macfarlane, Sadiqa de Meijer, Karen Solie, and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson are among the writers I consider favourites, but there are so many books that I haven’t yet read! Who knows how many new favourite writers are waiting for me?

OCW: Are you a plotter or a pantser?

KW: A pantser. I want to explore and see where things go. Sometimes, of course, that means they don’t go anywhere! That’s a risk I’m willing to take, because for me the rewards are always surprising. And who doesn’t like surprises?