Reading and Discussion: Never the New Normal

The planet is on fire and in flood, as ever more alarming reports detail the impacts of climate change and species extinction, soil erosion and air pollution. How on earth should we respond to this ever-expanding checklist of loss? In their own inimitable ways, three astonishing poets shape their work as exercises in environmental attention. Jen Hadfield’s The Stone Age helps the rocks of Shetland speak aloud, bringing the living consciousness of all things into simultaneous conversation and fresh silence. In Life Without Air, Daisy Lafarge explores the strange intimacies of microbes, parasites, and combustible relationships. Polly Atkin’s new collection Much with Body immerses this attention into disabled bodies, creating a shimmering ecopoetry of lakescapes and watery, shifting place. The event will be chaired by poet and Push the Boat Out program advisor Samuel Tongue.