Solastalgia: Stories of Climate Emotions
Book discussion and readings
Wednesday, April 12, 5 p.m.
Belk Library room 421
On Wednesday, April 12th, Paul Bogard, editor of the new anthology SOLASTALGIA: An Anthology of Emotion in a Disappearing World will be on campus to discuss this collection of writings about the emotions we feel in response to our changing world. App State contributors to the anthology, Jennifer Westerman and Laura England, will share readings of their essays.
About Paul Bogard: Paul Bogard is the author of The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light, a finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. His most recent works include the edited anthology Solastalgia: An Anthology of Emotion in a Disappearing World, the coffee table book To Know a Starry Night, and the children's book What if Night? Paul is an associate professor of English at Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota USA, where he teaches environmental literature and writing.
About SOLASTALGIA: As climate change and other environmental degradations become more evident, experts predict that an increasing number of people will suffer emotional and psychological distress as a result. Many are feeling these effects already. SOLASTALGIA explores this feeling with companionship, inspiration, and advice. The concept of solastalgia comes from the Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht, who describes it as "the homesickness we feel while still at home." It's the pain and longing we feel as we realize the world immediately around us is changing, with our love for that world serving as a catalyst for action on its behalf.
A timely and exciting book full of beautiful, incisive writing, Solastalgia promises to make a substantial addition to the growing body of environmental humanities works on emotional responses to ecological change. As writers continue to engage the pressing issues of global climate change and biodiversity loss, creative nonfiction is uniquely suited to this task of investigating new and emergent emotions.
- Kyle Badow, Northland College, Co-editor of Affective Ecocriticism: Emotion, Embodiment, Environment
With a soul that follows the science, Solastalgia shows us why fully embracing our grief and anger for the earth's wounds that humans have wrought is a necessary lifeline for becoming whole again in a broken world.
- Britt Wray, Stanford University, author of Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis