(Photo: Edie Steiner, Text 1: from the series Material Remains, 2003)

In the fall of 2011, ecocritics, writers, and poets from across Canada attended a conference at the Gladstone hotel in Toronto. This conference, entitled “Green Words/Green Worlds: Environmental Literatures and Politics in Canada,” focused on the relationship between the cultivation of an environmental reading (and writing) practice and engaged eco-politics. In this CoHearence episode, we’ll use recorded material collected at the conference as well as a follow-up interview with the conference organizers to explore the ways that Canadian ecocritics and poets are engaging with the challenging environmental questions of our time. Featuring conference organizers Catriona Sandilands and Ella Soper as well as keynote presenters Adam Dickinson, Anne, Milne, and Molly Wallace, we’ll ask the question: in a world increasingly characterized by climate change, environmental disasters, and technology, why does literature matter? How can an environmental writing practice be a political act?

Web Resources

• Association for Literature, Environment, and Culture in Canada (ALECC)
• The Association for the Study of Literature & Environment (ASLE)
• Yann Martel’s What is Stephen Harper Reading?
• Alternatives Journal – What Harper Should Read
• The Community Coalition Against Mining Uranium (CCAMU)
• Canadian Chemical News Interview with Adam Dickinson
• Edie Steiner’s Website

Works Cited

• Arendt, Hannah. “The Crisis in Culture.” Between Past and Future: eight exercises in political thought. London: Penguin Books, 1977.
• Beck, Ulrich. World at Risk. Trans. Ciaran Cronin. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2009.
• Beck, Ulrich. Risk society: towards a new modernity. London: Sage Publications, 1992.
• Dickinson, Adam. The Polymers. Scarborough ON: House of Anansi Press, 2013.
• Dickinson, Adam. “End Of The Year Or Sooner.” boulderpavement: arts and ideas 2 (2010): http://www.boulderpavement.ca/issue002/
• Dillman, Donna. Workshop–‘Uranium: Coming Soon to a Lung Near You.’ Canadian Environmental Network. n.d. Web 21 May 2012. [PDF]
• Nixon, Rob. Slow violence and the environmentalism of the poor. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2011.
• Van Wyck, Peter. Signs of Danger: Waste, Trauma, and Nuclear Threat. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota Press, 2005.
• Milne, Anne. “Reading My Skin: Experiential, Academic, and Creative Explorations in Skin Cancer.” English Studies in Canada. Special issue on Skin edited by Julia Emberley. 34.1. March 2008, 29-36.
• ReGreen: New Canadian Ecological Poetry (Scrivener Press, 2009)

Music Credits

• Pants Productions

Other Contributors

• Armand Garnett Ruffo
• Janine McLeod
• Catriona Sandilands
• Ella Soper
• Molly Wallace
• Rita Wong
• Anne Milne
• Adam Dickinson