Dear subscribers,
Welcome to a new year. Life goes on. Dreams continue. And as we struggle through hotter than normal summers, stormier winters, a pandemic, and the continuance of humanity’s selfishness and hatred, we might find ourselves more resilient than ever. One thing I can’t help but do during these times when we’re buried in snow dumps and cold, when even the idea of going out to a pub for a coldie is hindered by such things as Omicron, is to take a walk around the property and start planning for the spring. Not to ignore the beauty of the current season, for we’ve watched two winter storms come through in the last couple weeks, which into the wee hours of the morning mesmerized us with crazy wind, snow, ice, even thunder, and other powers of nature. Still, it is the time of year to start planning for the big season: what to plant, what to build, what to write. This creative process is similar to the work I do at Dragonfly.eco, which tries to find meaning in the stories we tell about our connections to natural landscapes around us and how to cope in a changing world where ecological disasters are more overwhelming each year.
It's a wild Atlantic Canada winter, but, like usual, I'm dreaming of those spring projects, and one of those is to build at least one bat box. Read more about that idea in my January Backyard Wildlife post.
January Book Recommendation
My new monthly book suggestion is a newsletter-only feature. This month I’m recommending Karl Ove Knausgaard’s The Morning Star. This novel really left me on the edge, in ways that I think would be hard to describe, only that sometimes stories do that, and this one carried me through nights and nights of reading before sleep. First off, I picked up the book because I had read somewhere that it was about an ecological crisis. That was only part of it. The biggest part was a deep dive into the nature of humans, from early cultures to now. But even that is not a good description of what's happening. The story takes place in southern Norway. The author goes very deeply into the most ordinary facets of several people's lives, and how they are connected and affected by a major event going on in the sky. A new star, brighter than any other, has appeared. The book is nearly 700 pages long and occurs over a period of two days. It seems that climate change is happening because the summer temperatures have broken records. Also, animals are acting strangely. But there’s a lot of religious stuff going on too, so I am not sure why the climate is changing in the novel. Is it because a star is the start of some sort of religious event, or is because of human-caused destruction, resulting in AGW climate disaster and weirdness? The Morning Star is the first book in a series.
In Our News
I’ve made a few changes at Dragonfly recently. I change the banner art occasionally because having only one all the time feels too much like branding. So every year or two I license some new art. I’m really happy with the new header art. The image is an aboriginal art vector painting with a dragonfly. The image is copyright by by rashmisingh and licensed for use by Can Stock Photo.
I've also added some new categories to the database, including flora and fungi, and I’ve changed the previous "animals" category to fauna. The idea of fungi fiction has been on my mind for a while, but it wasn't until I did a DORKS talk with an awesome guest, Autumn Anglin, that I learned a lot more about fungi as well as her own science and art, which is absolutely inspiring. I told her that I'd try to put together a list of fungi fiction, so this is a start!
New in the World Eco-fiction Spotlight series is a look at George RR Martin's The Beautiful and Dangerous Ecology in A Song of Fire and Ice. I first wrote the article in April 2019 as I was awaiting Season 8 of Game of Thrones. But I updated the article earlier in January as a way to remind myself of Tyrion Lannister’s ideas of how powerful stories are—and in anticipation of The House of the Dragon. Also, occasionally I post eco-critical looks at popular novels of our times, and A Song of Fire and Ice fits into that category.
In January's Indie Corner is the fascinating story of Barbara Newman and her new YA eco-fantasy novel The Dreamcatcher Codes.
It looks like Emmi Itäranta's Memory of Water will be released as a film adaption on March 11 as Veden vartija. You can read more about the novel here, where Emmi and I chatted about it in 2014. She told me that she’s not sure when an American release might happen, but it’s definitely something to look forward to!
On a personal note, I opened a new author website at clarahume.com. I moved all my blog posts (going back to 2014!) over there and have teased about my next novel, Elk Stories. Above is concept art for the eventual cover image, licensed via Can Stock Photo and copyright by Almavita.
Here's my review of Don't Look Up. I really enjoyed this film, as did my husband. I think ordinary people are liking this movie far more than some paid critics, according to the difference between sites like Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB/Google reviews, the latter of which has positive ratings of about 80% average.
Thanks to Sara Barkat for joining the Dragonfly Library with an excerpt of her new collection of short stories: The Shivering Ground. Also new is a sample of Clara Hume's (my) Bird Song: A Novella.
In the Rewilding Our Stories Discord, our membership keeps growing; now we have more than 175 members. Until January 21, members are suggesting a new book to read for our book club, with a vote to follow shortly, so feel free to join in on that. The moderators are also coming up with some exciting new initiatives, which we'll announce soon. To join, see https://discord.com/invite/txgJNVg and follow the bot instructions!
In Other News
Occasionally, someone posts a really cool book in our Discord, so I was happy to discover Chlorophobia: An Eco-Horror Anthology, edited by AR Ward. It was published by Ghost Walker Press this past summer. I'm currently reading it, and it's intriguing, so I'd recommend it.
Grist's FIX climate lab recently posted Pop Culture Can No Longer Ignore Our Climate Reality. Having run this site going on nine years now, I am pretty sure that culture has been absolutely immersed in art about climate change, including literature and films. Did I mention that the database reached over 900 books last month? But, I still agree with Grist that pop culture has to take this on and continue to introduce the reality of our ecologically changing world to raise every day engagement.
At LitHub, Ingrid Horrocks writes Dissolving Genre: Toward Finding Ways to Write About the World, while reimagining the relationship between the human and non-human.
Recently a form went up allowing you to sign up to the mailing list for this coming spring's free online conference Black Literature vs. Climate Emergency. Confirmed presenters include Emily Raboteau, Aya de Leon, Bernard Ferguson, Kevin Henderson, Ashia Ajani, Aniya Butler, and more. The conference is hosted by Poetry for the People and the UC Berkeley Black Studies Collaboratory.
Solarpunk Magazine's inaugural issue went up in early January and includes an interview with Kim Stanley Robinson and scientist Nina Munteanu's article about eco-fiction.
The Erasmus Student and Alumni Alliance (ESAA) has a new podcast project called No Place Green Enough. From their site:
No Place Green Enough" Podcast - Entertainment or education? Listen and decide for yourself! If movies like "Don’t Look Up" and "Dune" made you think about the world and its systems, "No Place Green Enough" will weave the same thoughts, in the form of a podcast!
In The Nation, Clinton Williamson talks about "The Puzzle of Eco-fiction" as he writes on George R. Stewart's Storm giving us an ideal model for how to approach the narrative challenges of a story about climate catastrophe.
Mark Athitakis, from the LA Times, lists Ash Davidson's Damnation Spring as one of his five favorite books of 2021.
Resources
In case you’ve missed these exciting resources at Dragonfly, which are constantly being updated, check ‘em out!
World’s biggest playlist? Our environmental/nature song-of-the-week playlist, which goes back to 2015.
List of eco/climate films and documentaries
Eco-fiction links and resources
Book database (with over 900 titles)
Turning the Tide: The Youngest Generation (fiction aimed toward children, teens, and young adults)
Indie Corner: New as of mid-2020, we give a hats off to authors who publish independently
Backyard Wildlife: An hidden gem exploring how we are rewilding our own backyard and meadow
Artists & Climate Change. This is an extraordinary resource delving into all kinds of the arts focused on climate change. For a while now they’ve been rerunning my world eco-fiction spotlights. Recently they’ve made me a core writer for their team, and I’m both honored and grateful. Look for my “Wild Authors” series there.
Copyright 2024 Mary Woodbury