Humanity is defined by the stories we tell ourselves
But our stories are failing and the world is suffering. It’s time to tell a new story. This is a course for writers who want to explore climate change and the environmental crisis in their work.
So. Climate change, eh?
Looks like we’ve gone from ‘oh we should do something about this’ to ‘holy crap we’re in deep doodoo’ pretty quickly. But where is the overwhelming body of art and literature that this crisis should be inspiring?
We’re not talking dystopia here.
We’re talking the stories about how we live now.
Stories about the fear and grief and rage.
Stories of hope and hopelessness.
Stories about living and surviving during the slow apocalypse of climate change, the collapse of capitalism, the implosion of democracy.
The creative response to climate change has always been troubled; at first slow to appear and then struggling to have meaningful impact.
It is easy to feel despondent; it’s also easy to forget that we have always been defined by the stories we tell ourselves.
The climate crisis demands from us nothing less than a new way of telling stories and a new way of listening.
Without an adequate cultural response we will struggle with a meaningful social and political response, and in this respect the role of artists and writers is clear.
Based our sell-out, transformational, generally awesome climate writers retreat in 2019, this course plays host to writers at all stages who are keen to engage in climate change but find their work is somehow paralysed.
During this course we will discuss the problems of narrativising climate change and focus on what each writer needs from themselves and their community to be able to bring their stories forward into the world.
