creative writing on environmental justice
We are living in a time of perpetual change. The kind of change that could see water being forcibly rationed and withheld from all but the most privileged or most criminal. The kind of change that shows us that tourism, whether well-meaning or not, has worn away at the natural and metaphysical consciousness of a country for the sake of money. The kind of change which . . .
Fairytales are revealing: they tell us about the world in which they were formed, the landscapes and values that created them. They’re also ever-changing, morphing to meet the mindsets of the times. The brutality of the Brothers Grimm is transmogrified by Disney; the pagan folk stories of Wales morph into the Christianity-friendly fables of the Mabinogion . . .
How can—or can’t—ideological political movements serve us in the climate crisis?
It’s a question which increasingly nags while reading Kohei Saito’s “degrowth communism” bestseller, originally published in Japanese as Capital in the Anthropocene (2020). In this new English translation, University . . .
What it’s like. When the death of your home is someone else’s lesson learned (p. 118).
These are the thoughts of Dario, who lives in a vertical city after sea-level rise claimed his childhood home and forced him to resettle. He watches, captivated, as the artist Yeong-cheol Min sculpts clay into a representation of Dario’s former homeland, a series of . . .
Living in the Necrocene, and being somewhat cognisant of environmental change as it happens around me, has its disadvantages. There’s a constant, low-level preoccupation with death: of species, of ecosystems, of potential futures. This tends to be reinforced by my choice of reading material. As a speculative writer myself, and one who often focuses on climate . . .
Another Life by Sarena Ulibarri, solarpunk writer and editor, depicts an ecotopian community thriving through the climate crisis after the collapse of the current global economy. In dialogue with current trends in politics and environmentalism—as well as timeless themes like the weight of history over individuals, the conflict for power between . . .
If you’ve ever found yourself thirsting for a pond, maybe you can relate: since middle school, I have been taught to believe in certain prerequisites for being an artist. You need, first, solitude; second, peace of mind, usually defined as someone else doing your laundry; third, your own place, preferably by a pond. We were shown Landscape Art and given Nature . . .
Sometimes I like to fantasize about how I’d cope with the end of the world—or, at least, the end of our relatively comfortable and stable society. I’m hardly a doomsday prepper, and I’m pretty sure that my gangly, over-friendly self would barely last a few days into the apocalypse, but it’s a fascinating hypothetical for two reasons: firstly, because . . .
Claire G. Coleman’s debut novel, Terra Nullius, is a difficult and powerful book set in an Australia under occupation. It starts in medias res with the flight from slavery of a young Native man named Jacky. This sequence may seem historically familiar, as may the word “Native.” But Terra Nullius contains a revision of perspective at about the 120 page-mark that . . .
Pladek’s debut novel, Dry Land, is a historical fantasy set in the First World War, focusing on an uncommon topic in fantasy literature: forestry. In addition to its environmental and war themes, and its careful engagement with queer realities, Dry Land also offers a refreshing take on magic. Yet perhaps most importantly, Dry Land is a story about personal . . .