I am a freelance writer, with a particular focus on nature, ecology, agriculture and place.  I’ve spent several years working in media, communications, environmental campaigning and agricultural extension. But how and where one works is only a fraction of the answer: from tall ship sailing to bird watching, from hiking to horseriding, from creative non-fiction to poetry, nature and place (even at sea) are constant themes. 

I grew up by the ocean in Fremantle, WA, and in the mountains of East Gippsland, Victoria. I’ve also lived in Ireland, Melbourne and Canberra. A journey across southern Australia in 2023 has brought me to Denmark, WA. I acknowledge and pay my deepest respects to the Nyoongar and Gunaikurnai Traditional Owners of the lands I call home.

This blog began during my time in Melbourne and has evolved and changed over time according to my location, employment, immediate political concerns and the vagaries of life. My writing engages with issues and topics that are important to me, including the environment, feminism, Australian politics and connection to land, place and sea. Sometimes, this engagement is through literature; sometimes by responding to topics in the media; often, through reflection on personal experience.

A selection of my writing is included below, and there is more information about my professional experience here.

The work on this blog is copyright Suzannah Marshall Macbeth. For permissions, licensing or other queries, please contact me by leaving a comment or via Twitter. 

 

 

Selected works – Suzannah Marshall Macbeth

Co-author: Natural Asset Farming: Creating Productive and Biodiverse Farms. By David Lindenmayer, Suzannah Macbeth, David Smith and Michelle Young. Published 2022 by CSIRO Publishing.

“Saving Canberra’s goannas”, The Saturday Paper, 3 June 2023.

“The luxury of going home in an age of uncertainty”, Overland, 18 March 2020.

Canberra Times book reviews

• “Saving Time by Jenny Odell review – reimagining how we think about time” (19 May 2023)
• “The Bell of the World by Gregory Day review – A clarion call to see the world beyond our walls” (28 April 2023)
• “Who Cares? by Eve Vincent review – Critiquing a welfare system that denies the importance of care to all our lives” (17 March 2023)
• “Sweeney and the Bicycles by Philip Salom” (27 January 2023)
• “Koala: A life in trees by Danielle Clode” (2 December 2022)
• “Saving the Reef by Rohan Lloyd review – The human story behind the Great Barrier Reef” (22 October 2022)

Kill Your Darlings, non-fiction articles, 2012-2023.

“Nothing New Under the October Sun”, published in The Big Issue, November 2011.