There’s a new poetry prize in town, and it’s designated for “exceptional poems that help make real for readers the gravity of the vulnerable state of our environment at present.” Here are the details: Submissions for the first prize will be accepted online from September 1 through November 1. The winning poets will be announced …
Terrain, one of the premier environmental journals, is now holding its 10th-annual writing contest across three genres. The judges are: Camille T. Dungy, PoetryCamille T. Dungy, the award-winning author of Trophic Cascade and four other poetry collections, is the editor of Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry. Alison Hawthorne Deming, NonfictionAlison Hawthorne Deming is the author …
ASLE is the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment. Every other year, the organization hosts a conference; this year it was at the University of California at Davis, and we drove down to participate. I’m told there were more than 1,200 attendees, a conference record, and a sign that environmental literature is …
Western Colorado University has launched a new MA/MFA program devoted to nature writing, which they are calling Earth StoryCraft: Earth StoryCraft marks intersecting social & environmental emergencies. We encourage imaginative storytelling for resistance & renewal of land This program joins our growing list of Environmental Humanities and Writing Programs. If you know of a program …
There’s a new environmental journal in town, called Media + Environment and published by the University of California Press. Media+Environment (officially written as Media and Environment) is an open access, online, peer-reviewed journal of transnational and interdisciplinary ecomedia research. The journal seeks to foster dialogue within a fast-growing global community of researchers and creators working …
Several years ago, I heard about a Republican, a former speech writer for George W. Bush, who had written a book in favor of protecting animals. I also heard that he was vegetarian (now vegan). I initially wondered if hell had frozen over. I’m joking, but only slightly. Because it was just a few months …
I feel ashamed to admit this, but until recently I had not read, end to end, Silent Spring. I had read parts of the book over the years and have been acutely aware of what the book is about — and perhaps this was the reason I avoided it for so long. But when I saw …
Dahr Jamail’s The End of Ice: Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning in the Path of Climate Disruption is at once a memoir of the author’s experiences in nature and a report of the state of the planet amid rapid climate change. This well-researched, passionate book is about the end of more than ice—Jamail takes us …
If you’re a poet focused on environmental issues, the Ginkgo Prize is worth investigating. Submissions are not free (the first poem is is £7), but the awards are significant and the judges are Homero Aridjis and Jen Hadfield. The prize is in its second year and is funded by the Edward Goldsmith Foundation. The competition …
If we lived on this planet only one day a year then perhaps celebrating one “Earth Day” a year would make more sense. But as LitHub points out, every day is earth day. And they are assembling an ambitious list of 365 books for your climate change library, beginning with the classics. It’s nice to …
Today is World Penguin Day— not that we need a reason to celebrate these amazing little creatures, but it’s great to have a designated day on which everyone thinks about these birds and how they’re faring in such a rapidly changing world. So, how exactly are the penguins doing? According to the International Union for Conservation of …
Even though every day is Earth Day at EcoLit Books, we wish you all a lovely day and hope it includes some quality time outdoors, with animals, and enjoying all our planet has to share.
Congratulations to Richard Powers for a novel that captures the tragedy of what we have lost (and continue to lose) every time we cut down some of the oldest-living inhabitants of this planet. I reviewed the book here with my only criticism being the conspicuous lack of vegan characters. You don’t have to look very …
This imagined prehistory is undeniably the crowning achievement in Schrefer’s ape quartet, at once brimming with hope and loss, love and cruelty, constantly challenging the reader to question, in six hundred thousand years, how much and how little we’ve evolved.
The UK-based Green Stories Writing Competition is looking for full-length plays that address sustainability — and, best of all, the contest is free to enter. Here are the details… We are looking for Stage Plays that in some way touch upon ideas around building a sustainable society. If you’d prefer to create your story in …
