What is Writing Home?
A series of letters and essays, a structure for the questions I find myself carrying, maybe even a hearth around which we can gather.
I’m Dougald Hine, author of At Work in the Ruins: Finding Our Place in the Time of Climate Crises and Other Emergencies and co-founder of organisations including the Dark Mountain Project and a school called HOME
This Substack is a place where I puzzle through the strangeness of the times we’re in, telling stories, sharing news of my own work and bringing together conversations about how to find your bearings and the work that is yours to do.
The rhythm of Writing Home varies with the changing seasons of life. Sometimes you’ll get tour diaries and recordings from public events, at other times there are in-depth essays on themes that can range from farming, GDP and the cultural logic of growth to the possibility of turning AI against its makers.
As a rule, I make my writing publicly available, so free subscribers will get all the essays and letters. I also convene live events on Zoom, like the “Sunday Sessions” series, often involving conversations with friends and co-conspirators, and publish videos which go behind the scenes of what I’m thinking about and working on. These events and recordings are open to those who choose to get more closely involved with my work.
The Home Team
Here’s how I think of it: there’s a wall, like the wall of a tent, and a door in the wall. By the door, there’s a table and on the table, there’s a bowl. Many of those stepping into the tent drop a few coins in the bowl, others exchange a few words with the host. No one has ever been turned away.
The reason for having a paywall on some of the work and the invitations that I make here is not to create scarcity, but because I value the space that we have together inside the tent. It’s a space of those who have gathered closer to the work I’m doing, taking more than a casual interest, and this makes possible different conversations. It also allows me to share things that aren’t quite ready to take out into public view and involve you in the process out of which my work emerges.
I’ve come to think of those inside the tent as the Home Team. You can become part of the team by taking out a paid subscription to Writing Home – or, if that would be an obstacle, just drop me a note and I’ll comp you a subscription.
The existence of this community of readers who join me inside the tent has changed my experience of writing and is a source of great encouragement – while the support of those of you who are in a position to take out a paid subscription is now a significant part of the way I make a living, allowing me the freedom to pursue the work I’m called to do. Thank you!
About Me
I grew up in the northeast of England, spent my twenties travelling and working as a radio journalist in Sheffield, then moved to London for a while, until I was rescued by a Swedish woman I met at a festival in the middle of a forest. We settled in a small town, north of Uppsala, where people mostly know me as Alfie’s dad.
If you ever need to get in touch with me directly, you can use the contact page on my website.
