Keith Wilkinson is an educator, editor and poet and has published work in a number of literary journals and chapbooks and on his blog at http://kwilk.wordpress.com/poetry/. A 2009 chapbook, Winter Gifts, is available from Lipstick Press http://lipstickpoetry.blogspot.ca/, and a 2013 illustrated chapbook, Incubating Poetry: a creative conversation, created in collaboration with visual artist Mary Bennett, is available directly from Keith.
In 2013 Keith collaborated with environmental activist, Karl Perrin, to develop a Climate Action Curriculum, which is being used to guide introductory seminars on the topic across Metro Vancouver. This flexible curriculum is available free from the Canadian Unitarian Council (CUC) at http://cuc.ca/social_responsibility_monitoring_groups/environment/. Also available are several easy-to-use guides including Policy Suggestions, Choosing Climate Actions, and Suggested Climate Advocacy Groups endorsed by the CUC Environmental Monitoring Group.
Keith tweets #micropoetry, #haiku and #senryu under the name @wintergifts and manages a Twitter account for the Unitarian Church of Vancouver @UnitarianUCV, which takes a liberal religious approach to climate justice, the interdependent web of all existence, and individual spiritual growth.
The Sea Wall at Vancuuver Shoal is the first in a series of stories set in a post-apocalyptic world resulting from dramatic climate change. “Choosing a post-apocalyptic setting”, Keith says, “allows me to bypass the depressing and psychologically debilitating reality of our current 21st century climate circumstances and focus instead on hopeful possibilities that could emerge in a future after what eco-spiritualist Joanna Macy has termed “The Great Turning”, a time when people continue their struggles toward ethical and personal fulfillment in a radically different physical and social environment.” The series of stories begins 1,000 years in the future with the youthful Shmuul and Tanka on the shoals of Old Vancuuver, near Antrim Sangha (not far from Burnaby’s Central Park), and the ruins of the Shangri La Glittercast where the downtown of Old Vancuuver used to be.
