Author | Academic
The first year of my post as Researcher-in-Residence for the The British Haiku Society has come to a close with the publication of ‘Twisting point: the evolution of haiku in the climate crisis’. You can read it free right here: http://britishhaikusociety.org.uk/essays/
Totally stoked for year two of this project, an anthology of climate haiku – watch this space for submission deets in the coming months…!
Are you a PGR or ECR working in Environmental Humanities and thinking about publication?
Then tune in to Ep.3 of ASLE-UKI’s podcast, Green Listening, in which I chair a Publishing Workshop with experts Alex Campbell (University of Glasgow), John Miller (The University of Sheffield) and Richard Kerridge (Bath Spa University). It’s a great listen, as evidence by festive-themed giant-headphone selfie! Check it out here: https://t.co/07X35Y4rwc
This is my last post before logging off for the winter break – happy festive season everybody and see you in the New Year! 
New issue of Green Letters, journal of ALSE-UKI, landed on my doorstep over the weekend – most excited to have a lil book review of one of my go-to thesis references, ‘Science Fiction and Climate Change: A Sociological Approach’ by Andrew Milner and J. R. Burgmann (Liverpool University Press:2020).
Also presents a good moment to remind everyone that TONIGHT is the FREE ONLINE Asle Uki Seminar on Geopoetics with Craig Santos Perez (University of Hawaiʻi, Mānoa), Oliver Dawson (University of Bristol), and Johannes Riquet (Tampere University). Together with me as chair, we’ll be exploring: What does a poetics which places the planet Earth at the centre of experience look and feel like? Register here.
In amongst leaving ASLE-UKI flyers at City, University of London, I’m very excited to be chairing the next ASLE-UKI Seminar on Geopoetics with brilliant speakers Craig Perez, Ollie Dawson and Johannes Riquet.
Big thanks to co-organisers Demi Wilton and Vera Fibisan!
FREE, 7.30pm GMT, 6.12.22, online! Register here.
Episode 2 of ASLE-UKI’s podcast ‘Green Listening: Discussions in Ecocriticism’ is here! University College Dublin hosts ‘Speculative Environments andProspective Anthropocenes’ featuring Sarah Bezan, Ailise Bulfin, Paula McGrath and Sam Solnick.
The Anthropocene – an epoch of unparalleled climate change, habitat destruction, and species loss – offers an opportunity to think about the role of storytelling, performance, and modes of representation that respond to environmental conditions. This project, ‘Prospective Anthropocenes and Speculative Environments’ explores creative modes of representation that engage with problems of nature trauma (Paula McGrath), species loss (Sarah Bezan), climate change (Ailise Bulfin), and energy futures (Sam Solnick).
Hosted at the University College Dublin, this project will take the format of a roundtable composed of two tête à têtes (or one on one conversations) between a total of four scholars from Ireland and the UK. Paula McGrath (UCD) and Sam Solnick (Liverpool) will conduct a one on one conversation about theatre, performance, and creative writing; Sarah Bezan (York) and Ailise Bulfin (UCD) will discuss species loss and climate change.
It will shock no one that I got overexcited giving a paper at the ASLE-UKI 2022 Conference this week!
What a fab time it was too! It was the first in-person conference of my PhD cause of COVID & it was everything I could wish for. I left feeling so integrated with a fab eco-literature research community & made more friends than I can count!
Some of my highlights include:
💚 Meeting the Committee F2F for the first time since joining as PGR/ECR Rep last year.
💚 Being on a panel with Jonathan Thornton (Liverpool University), Ingmar Haag (Stockholm University) and David Shackleton (Cardiff University). I explored chronological anonymity and hopeful longevity in dystopian climate fiction. Photographic evidence from Lucy Nield!
💚 Excursion to Tynemouth Abbey including paddling in the sea, which was deliciously cold and full of delightful seaweed and creatures. Thanks so much for organising Rosie Paice!
💚 And of course seemingly infinite inspiring ideas and insights. Jumping from my many notes: ‘the garden hums with the past… meet vegetal creatures on their own turf… art is an anti-entropic response…’ I could’ve listened to everyone for months!
HUGE thanks to the organising committee – particularly Brycchan Carey – for a magic few days, and to generous hosts Northumbria University. Already can’t wait for the 2023 conference at Liverpool University!
ASLE UKI is having their Biennial Conference this weekend and next week – here’s the details…
Saturday 3 September ONLINE & FREE
9am–6pm BST
This free, online conference day is open to all, just register in advance via Eventbrite! The cracking lineup includes panels on enviornmental and literary themes, a publishing workshop and much more! It’s been a pleasure co-organising this conference with fellow ASLE-UKI PGR and ECR Reps Sofie Schrey, Dr Vera Fibisan and Demi Wilton.
6–8 September Northumbria University
Northumbria University is hosting the 2022 Biennial Conference of ASLE UKI in person! There will be dinners, events, excursions and the usual incredible collection of papers and panels, including keynote speakers Elizabeth-Jane Burnett (Northumbria University) and Samantha Walton (Bath Spa University). I’m even giving a lil paper myself!
More info right here. Hope to see you there! x
I’m completely over the moon to say I’ll be starting as Lecturer in Publishing at City, University of London this September. I feel immensely lucky and excited to be joining the fantastic team at City, and am looking forward to engaging with the future of publishing, creative writing, and literature though teaching and research. Huge, huge thanks to City for inviting me on board!
Meanwhile, I’m entering the final year of my PhD at UEA and continue digging away in my research burrow investigating hope in climate fiction.
Hope you’re all staying safe and cool in this heatwave, and that your garden are surviving through deep-roots and assiduous water re-use!
I finally graduated from my MA in Creative Writing (2019) at he University of East Anglia (UEA). This graduation was delayed by a couple of years because of the pandemic and it meant a huge amount to be able to put on my robes and hat and celebrate with my family. For me, the ceremony was about the achievement of completing the MA but also persevering through tough times – academically and with the pandemic!
It’s a durability that’ll be needed in the coming years too, I think: the ceremony took place on that 40 degree day – thank goodness in the morning when it was still a little cool – but a sign that there are uncertain days ahead. This was a lovely reminder that even within strange times, we can still celebrate and find joy. Thanks to the Department of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing for being – and continuing to be – a fab academic home!
Eco-minded friends, wrap your ears around this…
I’m delighted to announce the launch of Green Listening, a new ecocriticism podcast for ASLE-UKI, co-hosted by our PGR/ECR Rep team – Dr Vera Fibisan (who’s spear-headed our first episode), Demi Wilton and myself!
Episode 1 features Dr John Miller from the University of Sheffield and is available FREE here.
We’ll be releasing more episodes in the autumn – watch this space…!
On 17th May at 10.30am BST online, I’m delighted to be part of a roundtable at Münster University called “Culture v. Commerce in the UK Publishing Industry”.
Fellow panellists Cat Mitchell, Dr Audrey Laing and myself will give three 15-minute presentations on the tensions within the UK publishing field that have arisen due to the conflict between commerce and culture in 21st-century book publishing. Our presentations will be followed by a discussion and Q&A, chaired by Chiara Bullen.
The event is FREE and open to all, register here. For more info, click here. Hope to see you there!
A belated post, but… DELIGHT, DELIGHT! ‘Some of the Best from Tor.com: 2021 Edition’ is out, and my story ‘Sand’ is in it, and my grin looks like a slice of the moon! ✨
I’m delighted to be co-organising the ASLE-UKI Seminar on Environmental Displacement, part of the ASLE-UKI Seminar Series.
Date and Time: 17 March 2022, 5.30 pm
How to Take Part: Register FREE via Eventbrite
Speakers: Jos Smith (University of East Anglia), Charne Lavery (University of Pretoria and the Oceanic Humanities for the Global South project based at WISER, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa), Giovanni Bettini (Lancaster University)
What does displacement mean in our warming world? Placing three researchers from the environmental humanities in conversation with one another, this seminar will explore cross-disciplinary approaches to conceptualizing Anthropocenic mobility. How is both human and non-human movement understood in the context of climate change? How do literary and cultural artefacts anticipate displacement? What is the relationship between land and sea in underrepresented areas such as the Global South? Join us 17 March 2022, 17:30 GMT, for a free online ASLE-UKI seminar exploring ‘Environmental Displacement’.
Convenors: ASLE-UKI Postgraduate and Early-career Representatives (Demi Wilton, Jasmin Kirkbride, Vera Fibisan)
You can find more info about the ASLE seminar series here.
In all honesty, this review could just have been ‘I freaking loved this book’. But I loved it too much not to go into detail. It’s very much in my research wheelhouse and eloquently said a lot of really on point things.
You can read my review of ‘Science Fiction and Climate Change: A Sociological Approach’ by Andrew Milner and JR Burgmann in the journal Green Letters.
Some academic news today!
My review of Narrating the Mesh: Form and Story in the Anthropocene by Marco Caracciolo has been published in the ASLE’s journal Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism.
A thought-provoking read, which has really made me ponder new methodologies for my thesis! You can read the review here.
I’m delighted to have a haiku in ‘Temple: The British Haiku Society Anthology 2021’. This annual anthology is a wonderful read and it’s always such a treat to get through the post, what a pleasure to be published amongst so many fellow haiku enthusiasts. Many thanks to the whole British Haiku Society team and especially the editor Iliyana Stoyanova!
🚀 Totally unbelievably exciting news! My short story ‘Sand’, which was published on Tor.com in October, has been selected for their anthology ‘Some of the Best from Tor.com: 2021 Edition’.
❤️ I feel incredibly lucky to have been selected as one of the 22 short stories and novelettes in this collection – what a group of writers to be amongst, my gosh! Thank you Tor.com!
📕 The anthology will be published 25th January 2022 as a free eBook. You can find out more about it here. And don’t forget in the meantime, you can still read ‘Sand’ right here, also for free.
I had a little rebellion, and wrote a piece for Writers Rebel!
‘Lost landscapes and the grief of nature’s tessellations’ is all about grief, hope, and climate change, and it’s FREE to read on their website here.
Huge thanks to the folks at Writers Rebel for publishing this piece – and for all the work they do protecting our world.
Here’s to looking after the world, and the landscapes we love.
It’s been a busy and exciting fortnight since ‘Sand’ was published – a huge thank you to everyone for your kind words and comments about it, I’ve been really blown away! ❤️
You can also now buy Sand as an eBook for only 71p at your local digital bookseller – the link is on the Tor.com story page.
Excitingly, since the eBook launch, the story’s had a couple of reviews…
⭐ Long and Short Reviews gave it 4 stars, saying it was thoughtful and admirably compassionate.
🪐 Tangent called it bizarre, strange and ‘likely to split reader opinion’ (always an exciting thing to do!)
🚀 It’s also been listed on Rocket Stack Rank with Tor.com’s other October short stories, which is a long-time daydream of mine and feels really nice!
BUT WHAT DO YOU THINK? You can now review the book on GoodReads and on eBooks stores like Amazon. So, if you’ve found the story interesting, think about dropping it a star-rating or written review – it honestly helps the story have a longer, happier cyberspace life!
Thanks again for all the gorgeous feedback and encouragement – you’re the loveliest readers in the world! xXx
🚀 My new short story, ‘Sand’, has just been published on Tor.com. It’s ‘a heart-wrenching tale about generational trauma and healing’ – and you can read it here for FREE.
🪐 To say I’m excited about this is a huge understatement – this is a dream come true. Huge thanks to the Tor.com team and particularly my lovely editor Lee Harris. I’m over the moon and Saturn and Betelgeuse!
📕 Also a huge thanks to the illustrator Juan Bernabeu, who’s done such an incredible illustration for the story. If you would like to buy an eBook version for 99p with this s-t-u-n-n-i-n-g cover, you can by following the link.
❤️ Hope you enjoy reading! x