'Australia — and the world — is changing. On the Great Barrier Reef corals bleach white, across the inland farmers struggle with declining rainfall, birds and insects disappear from our gardens and plastic waste chokes our shores. The 2019–20 summer saw bushfires ravage the country like never before and young and old alike are rightly anxious. Human activity is transforming the places we live in and love.
'In this extraordinarily powerful and moving book, some of Australia’s best-known writers and thinkers — as well as ecologists, walkers, farmers, historians, ornithologists, artists and community activists — come together to reflect on what it is like to be alive during an ecological crisis. They build a picture of a collective endeavour towards a culture of care, respect, and attention as the physical world changes around us. How do we hold onto hope?
'Personal and urgent, this is a literary anthology for our age, the age of humans.' (Publication summary)
'Edited by Cameron Muir, Kirsten Wehner and Jenny Newell, these excellent essays speak more of loss than of hope.'
'“I can tell our stories. I can bear witness. But I have to be honest. Some days bearing witness doesn’t seem like enough.” That’s novelist and editor Sophie Cunningham in the essay collection Living with the Anthropocene. Her unease highlights a dilemma haunting the entire book: Why write when the world’s ending – or, at least, changing in extraordinary ways? What can authors offer in the Anthropocene?' (Introduction)
'“I can tell our stories. I can bear witness. But I have to be honest. Some days bearing witness doesn’t seem like enough.” That’s novelist and editor Sophie Cunningham in the essay collection Living with the Anthropocene. Her unease highlights a dilemma haunting the entire book: Why write when the world’s ending – or, at least, changing in extraordinary ways? What can authors offer in the Anthropocene?' (Introduction)
'Edited by Cameron Muir, Kirsten Wehner and Jenny Newell, these excellent essays speak more of loss than of hope.'