Creative Writing Commons^™

Anthropaean Storytelling, Community, And The Ripples Of The Climate Crisis, Jonathan Summers

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

The climate crisis has grown into a dangerous global threat, pushing our planet to the point of ecological no return. We face the certainty of increasingly destructive climate disasters and social upheaval, threatening our societal and biological survival. The next few years will prove critical to the future welfare of our species and our planet. However, we are not without our defenses. Through the lens of fictional short stories, this capstone concentrates on community and storytelling, two deeply human behaviors that could be two of our greatest tools in the struggle against climate change. Human beings are social creatures at …

The Oracle Of The Pig's Head, Taylor L. Denton

LSU Master's Theses

The Oracle of the Pig’s Head is a collection of two poems, a short story, and a novel centered around themes of the role of the feminine body in society, monstrosity, disgust, divinity, and human impact on the environment. Inspired by other works of eco-criticism, gothic literature, surrealism, Appalachian folklore, and Greco-Roman mythology, this collection explores how marginalized bodies interact in a world forever altered by climate change.

Denton is primarily interested in how severe climate change has influenced not only human’s overall relationship to the environment, but also how writers are meant to engage with a world riddled with …

Before Showtime, Amy Kaler

The Goose

In this piece of creative nonfiction, I reflect on the experience of having time on my hands in peri-urban spaces that are characterized by transience, liminality, and contingency, while waiting for performance time at youth cheerleading competitions. I describe walking around these places, specifically Las Vegas and Abbotsford (BC). I connect my experience to other accounts of aimless wandering, such as the "derive" of psychogeography, and note the ways in which the exercises of power and potential world-ending catastrophe are present, but latent, in these landscapes. In particular, I consider the historic cold-war threat of a nuclear bomb as well …

Depaul Digest

DePaul Magazine

College of Education Professor Jason Goulah fosters hope, happiness and global citizenship through DePaul’s Institute for Daisaku Ikeda Studies in Education. Associate Journalism Professor Jill Hopke shares how to talk about climate change. News briefs from DePaul’s 10 colleges and schools: Occupational Therapy Standardized Patient Program, Financial Planning Certificate program, Business Education in Technology and Analytics Hub, Racial Justice Initiative, Teacher Quality Partnership grant, Intimate Partner Violence and Brain Injury collaboration, School of Music Career Closet, Sports Photojournalism course, DePaul Migration Collaborative’s Solutions Lab, Inclusive Screenwriting courses. New appointments: School of Music Dean John Milbauer, College of Education Dean Jennifer …

Grieving Climate Change: A Psychological And Personal Exploration Of Emotionally Processing The Climate Crisis, Hava Chishti

Pitzer Senior Theses

The psychological concept of grief, although not typically associated with climate change, has strong applications to the emotional processing of climate change for human beings. Grief can be related to climate change in many ways, including the grief that individuals may feel over the anticipated loss of their future, losses that may be experienced due to climate-related disasters, and grief for the overall implications of anthropogenic climate change. A mixture of traditional literature analysis and creative nonfiction essays, which focus on personal narratives from interviews and the author’s experience, are used to outline the ways in which the psychology of …

Research

Appalachia

Climate change is causing complex impacts to ecosystems worldwide. Plants and animals face the necessity of migrating north. Kevin Berend reports on some of the species that seem destined to move and asks whether researchers and conservation agencies should take an active role in helping species move.

Research

Appalachia

No abstract provided.

Growing Up Water, Dominique Barbee

Theses and Dissertations

“Growing Up Water” is a full-length manuscript consisting of one long poem in two parts. Louisiana is one of the most verdant naturally fertile states in the U.S. The state loses a football field of land almost every one-hundred minutes. This is largely due to climate change, oil drilling in the gulf, the cutting of canals, the waste poured in to the Mississippi river by the chemical plants that line this area (known as “Cancer Alley”), the onslaught of invasive species, the list goes on. Furthermore, due to global warming, “big” hurricanes are only becoming stronger and more frequent. Any …

Research

Appalachia

Richard Primack’s work compares climate conditions Henry David Thoreau reported 150 years before to the current conditions, reports Jennifer Weeks. In western North America, the Sitka spruce struggles, writes Lisa Densmore Ballard.

Outage: An Adventure In Situ, Learning To Fear Storms In A More Funadmental Way Than Before, W. D. Wetherell

Appalachia

Writer W.D. Wetherell lives in west central New Hampshire and has noticed that hundred-year storms have become more frequent. This story tells of a wretched night in the house experiencing climate change’s tempests.

The Utopian Range - Short Climate Fiction, Kai Broach

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This project represents three work-in-progress short stories from a larger planned collection of short speculative fiction: The Utopian Range.

In the world of the Utopian Range, the hegemonic World Government and the Intronet Corporation use the Utopian Range technology to mine the collective subconscious of its citizens for visions of the future. Our narrator, Gavin, learns that there might be more to the ideas it filters out than he expects. Told through interconnected stories simulated from Gavin’s subconscious with the help of a friendly rogue AI, this is The Matrix meets The Illustrated Man. These stories tell tales of personal …

The Leap: Journalist Meets Goat In Glacier National Park, Lisa Densmore Ballard

Appalachia

Photographer Lisa Densmore Ballard goes in search of mountain goats in Glacier National Park. The agile animals are a subfamily of hoofed animals, the sole members of their genus Oreamnos.

High-Altitude Melting: A Message For Civilization, Christopher Johnson

Appalachia

Christopher Johnson’s reported essay on the shrinking of Grinnell Glacier in Montana’s Glacier National Park.

Supporting A Mountain As It Changes: People, Climate, And The Absence Of Trees, Caroline Ailanthus

Appalachia

A science writer shows how Monadnock’s landscape tells the story of climate change and calamity.

Sequoias And Redwoods In A Hotter World: When Trees As High As 30-Story Buildings "Die On Their Feet," Something's Wrong, Christopher Johnson

Appalachia

Scientists in two pioneering research projects are examining how climate change affects the iconic ancient trees of California, by Christopher Johnson.

Braiding, Widening, And Downslope Creep: Trying To Restore Overly Loved Trails Below Mount Washington, Laura Waterman

Appalachia

Foot traffic has altered the landscape along the exposed Gulfside Trail below Mount Washington. Members of the Waterman Fund visit the trail to understand how it can be restored.

The Disappearing Rainbow Mountain: Pilgrims Flock To A Magical Peak In Peru That A Melting Glacier Revealed Four Years Ago, Lisa Ballard

Appalachia

Climate change has melted glaciers covering Mount Winikunka, or Rainbow Mountain. Huge numbers of hikers are following local guides up the 16,522-foot peak in Peru.

A Glitch In The Garden, Shelby Forma, Daisy Sheps, Elisar Haydar, Samuel Phippen, Robyn Miller, Téa Smith

Creative Humanities

Kai, a kid searching for a place to call home, stumbles upon a desert city with a secret— An amazing community garden! With the help of gardeners Cameron and Riley, Kai learns that strongest roots are grown with help from the old and the new.

Earth Needs Help, Rhiannon C. Barto

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

Humans destroy earth by polluting the atmosphere and wiping out other living things. Climate change is a human created problem that is increasing the rate at which the damage is occurring. The temperature is increasing at the fastest rate that it has in 10,000 years. With change happening this fast, it is hard for nature and animals, including ourselves, to adapt. Climate change is one of the biggest things causing this change and it is crucial to take action before it is too late. We need to stop deforestation, stop CO2 emissions, and stop the use of fossil fuels. The …

The Birds Make Everything Okay, Marybeth Holleman

The Goose

"the birds make everything okay" is a poem about where we are now, in these changing yet still beautiful times.

Zuihitsu: Teaching Aiiieeeee! As Intersectional Ecological Archive, Kenji C. Liu

Asian American Literature: Discourses & Pedagogies

A response to the Aiiieeeee! anthology on its 45th anniversary, using the Japanese zuihitsu form to reflect on its intersectional and ecological complexities and relevance for today.

Mountains To The Sea: How Climate Change Influences People, Cultures And Communities, Stephanie L. Maltarich

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

A Troop, A Raft, A Bed, Hanna Jane Guendel

Senior Projects Spring 2020

A Troop, a Raft, a Bed tells the interwoven fictional stories of three major animals (the mountain gorilla, the Adélie penguin, and the American eel) and four transitional animals (the white stork, the humpback whale, the common octopus, and the great white shark). The stories are told from the animals' perspectives, and are written with language that considers each animal's unique intelligence, mind, and behavior. These stories seek to communicate how animals around the world may be experiencing the various effects of climate change and global warming.

Victory Conditions, Alyssa May White

Senior Projects Spring 2020

Follow a not-scientist as she bluffs her way onto a research vessel in the Caribbean and into a world of data, research, and the unknown.

The Veilmakers, Emily Nicole Giangiulio

Senior Projects Spring 2020

Joint Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature and The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Earth: "Un-Human Me", Hakim Mohandas Amani Williams

Peace and Justice Studies Faculty Publications

He took a rib from your side and made others.

So you considered Others your children, forever.

He told you to go forth and produce and multiply so you made capitalism.

He told you to go forth and conquer and pillage and mark your name and plant your flag where-ever you wanted.

So now the moon is yours. Jupiter, beware! [excerpt]

Wrack Lines Volume 19, Number 1, Spring/Summer 2019, Nancy Balcom, Syma Ebbin, David Gregorio, Richard Telford, Judy Benson

Wrack Lines

Issue theme is: "Making Connections: As the Climate Changes, People and Nature Intertwine in New Ways." Articles include: "As More Roads Become Rivers, Communities Search for Solutions;" "Solving an Engineering Conundrum: As Coastal Homes Get Elevated, New Research Looks at Whether Vulnerability to Wind Damage Is Increasing;" "Along the Coast, Residents Consider How to Heed Sandy's Warning of What's to Come;" "All Rivers, All Lives Run to the Sea," about the intersection of waterways and the world of nature writer Edwin Way Teale; and "Crosscurrents: Connecticut Sea Grant's Retrospective Exhibition Makes Waves," about reaching new audiences and building bridges with …

Writer As Activist, Activist As Writer, Marybeth Holleman

The Goose

This brief essay describes the quandry and found guidelines of balancing art and activism, specifically as a writer. Examples come from the author's own work.

Kanjirowa Blues: An Exploration Of Environmental And Climate Consciousness In Lower Dolpa, Nepal, Casey Greenleaf

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

It has been scientifically demonstrated that high altitude, mountainous regions such as the Himalayas are extremely susceptible to and at accelerated risk of the effects of climate change. The regions of Lower Dolpa discussed in this work, Juphal, Dunai, Chun, and Dapu, lie in a glacial watershed, and are at present risk of landslides, floods, wildfires, and rely on agricultural and transhumant livelihoods that are uniquely susceptible to the impacts of changing temperature and weather patterns. People in this region are being forced to incrementally adapt and reframe their understanding of their surroundings due to both aforementioned severe events as …

Climate-Change Fiction And Poverty Studies: Kingsolver’S Flight Behavior, Diaz’S “Monstro,” And Bacigalupi’S “The Tamarisk Hunter”, Debra J. Rosenthal

2019 Faculty Bibliography

No abstract provided.