A climber. Picture: Hazel Barnard

Outdoors publisher Vertebrate has marked International Women’s Day by announcing an anthology of women’s work.

Waymaking, a timely anthology of prose, poetry and artwork from 50 women inspired by nature and the outdoors, aims to reform the gender balance in outdoor adventure literature.

Vertebrate said royalties from the sales of Waymaking, which will be published in September, will be split equally between the John Muir Trust and Rape Crisis, helping to conserve wild places and raise awareness of the problem of sexual violence in society and others.

A spokesperson for the company said: “Inspired by Gwen Moffat’s Space Beneath my Feet and Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain, which set a precedent for women writing about wilderness, Waymaking includes contributions by alpinist Editor Katie Ives, award-winning author Bernadette McDonald, adventurers Anna McNuff and Hazel Findlay and many more.

“The artists and writers in this collection prove that these girls can, and they do.”

The publication coincides with the centenary year of some women being granted the vote in Britain.

Vertebrate’s managing director Jon Barton said: “Though we actively seek out female authors and aim never to publish a guidebook without photos of both male and female athletes, the majority of our titles are written by and read by men.

“Statistics tell us that women read more than men, and you only have to go down to your local climbing wall or Park Run to see how many women take part in adventure sports.

“Yet mountain narratives fail to engage female readers. With Waymaking we hope to help redress this balance and inspire more female adventurers to get out there, and to tell their stories.”

The book will be published by on 6 September 2018 and edited by Claire Carter, Helen Mort, Heather Dawe and Camilla Barnard.