The Muse & The Marketplace 2024

In his book, The Uninhabitable Earth, journalist David Wallace-Wells posits that we suffer from a deep failure of imagination regarding the real-world danger of climate change. Novelist Amitav Ghosh, in his book-length essay, The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable, points out that the dilemmas and dramas of our global environmental crisis are mismatched with the kinds of stories we tell ourselves. So how can we write stories that are equal to the grave environmental crisis facing humanity at this point in our species' history? Using passages from novels by Margaret Atwood, Cormac McCarthy, Premee Mohammed, Emily St John Mandel, Omar El Akkad, and others, we’ll discuss the role of loss and longing in post-apocalyptic fiction, and illustrate the genre’s potential to illustrate the horror of what may lie ahead for us. Then we’ll turn to a number of other writers, such as James Welch, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Mary Oliver, to explore how literature that celebrates nature and place can serve as a counterpoint to paralyzing despair. The session will illuminate new perspectives for writers wishing to respond to climate and related environmental crises in their creative work. You will emerge with practical insights and ideas for addressing the anxieties and challenges of being alive at this moment in history and for helping point the way to a better future.