Winged Words – The Conference of the birds

Winged Words

5 posts

The Winged Words Workshop Nest will dive into the historical context of nature writing and the current context of environmental change. An example of the influence that literary works have had on bird culture in Finland is the veterinarian and writer Yrjö Kokko. Through his famous book ”Laulujoutsen/The singing swan” Kokko is widely credited with having saved the Whooper swan population in Finland from extinction and now thriving as the national symbol. In this Nest invited writers will explore Finnish environmental and literary history, changes in Scandinavian bird populations and their habitats, as well as global environmental problems and mass extinctions. The texts produced in the Nest will be published in The Conference of the Birds Anthology and be part of the final exhibition together with a workshop for the public, based on the same theme.
The place and form of this Nest is still taking shape and will be formulated during 2022.

The Winged Words Workshop Nest is curated and organized by Karoliina Lumma , Katri Aholainen and Ulla Taipale.

WWinged Words

13 minute read

Tibutibuvihihehehiu – Live with the Blyth’s Reed Warbler

March 31, 2025

This essay unravels an intriguing encounter between a human musician, a Blyth’s Reed Warbler, and a devoted bird…

WWinged Words

2 minute read

How words can change the life of birds.

February 10, 2025

In her doctoral dissertation, literary historian Katri Aholainen examined Yrjö Kokko’s classic works on birds as a co-production…

WWinged Words

23 minute read

Birds in Finnish literature

February 10, 2025

For the Winged Words Nest the Finnish literary scholar Karoliina Lumma has contributed with an essay that was…

WWinged Words

15 minute read

Sensing Birdpoetic Worlds

February 8, 2025

Jessica Sunnebo’s 2023 thesis explores the poetry of Swedish poet Nina Södergren (1924–2015) through an ecocritical and animistic…

WWinged Words

1 minute read

The Winged Words Workshop

January 4, 2021

The Winged Words Workshop Nest will dive into the historical context of Finnish nature writing and the current…