Articles by: Mary Woodbury

Interview with Antonia Santopietro, Eco-lit Blogger

I’m so happy to talk with Antonia Santopietro, who runs ZEST Letteratura Sostenibile. We’ve collaborated on a few projects, this one–a two-part feature of Italian authors, beginning on August 11th–is the biggest so far. Together we planned this article, which became large enough to break into two parts for the […]

Read More

Summerwater, Sarah Moss

…are brief chapters comprising lyrical and often ominous reports of the wildlife surrounding the human-made structures: the natural world is quietly suffering due to excessive changes in weather. –Prospect Magazine, UK On the longest day of the summer, twelve people sit cooped up with their families in a faded Scottish […]

Read More

Forbidden Fruit, Stanley Gazemba

The idea for Forbidden Fruit came to me in the expansive garden of an old colonial bungalow in Nairobi’s Lavington Estate, where I was then working as a gardener. Although the book was first published in Kenya in 2002 as The Stone Hills of Maragoli, it reverted to its working […]

Read More

Heart Wood, Shirley DicKard

Complete title: Heart Wood — Four Women, for the Earth, for the Future Heart Wood is a compelling family saga set in the foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada. Its characters shift from one generation to the next, as do the struggles they face in saving their homestead from the ravages […]

Read More

Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia

It’s difficult to highlight the eco-horror in this one without spoiling the twist, but suffice it to say, the Doyles have a hefty supernatural secret. In Mexican Gothic, the horror isn’t in nature turning against people but is in the way that extraction of natural resources helps entrench colonial powers […]

Read More

The Disaster Tourist, Yun Ko-eun

In this entertaining eco-thriller, the heroine curates holiday packages in disaster zones. –The Guardian An eco-thriller with a fierce feminist sensibility, The Disaster Tourist engages with the global dialog around climate activism, dark tourism, and the #MeToo movement…In The Disaster Tourist, Korean author Yun Ko-eun grapples with the consequences of […]

Read More

The Octopus and I, Erin Hortle

A stunning debut novel set on the Tasmanian coast that lays bare the wild, beating heart at the intersection of human and animal, love and loss, and fear and hope. Goodreads Reviews Back to Goodreads

Read More

The Seed Thief, Jacqui L’Ange

Jacqui L’Ange’s debut novel, The Seed Thief, will be made into a film. According to The Reading List, rights to the novel have been bought by indie producer Rodrigo Chiaro for an “international co-production, with links to Brazil, Panama, Europe, Singapore, as well as South Africa.” –Brittle Paper Sometimes the thing you […]

Read More

Backyard Wildlife – Moody Skies

Back to Series Note that I decided to rename this series “Backyard Wildlife” due to my original plans of getting out more into the province being squelched because of the coronavirus. Nova Scotia is really careful about things opening, more so than the United States. Nova Scotia has had, as […]

Read More

Bangkok Wakes to Rain, Pitchaya Sudbanthad

Click here to return to the series About the Book This July, we are fortunate to travel to Bangkok, Thailand, to explore Pitchaya Sudbanthad’s Bangkok Wakes to Rain, published by Riverhead Books (US, 2020) and Sceptre (UK, 2019); in 2019 it was selected as a notable book of the year […]

Read More

Statement of Solidarity

Introductory Resources: Black Lives Matters website Nnedi Okorafor’s article on Afro- vs. Africanfuturism #publishingpaidme hashtag More on #publishingpaidme Lovis Geier’s introduction into Black authors and trends in the field of eco-fiction Artists & Climate Change’s new series on Black Artists and Storytellers on the Climate Crisis My article at Medium […]

Read More

On Ocean Boulevard, Mary Alice Monroe

Like the sea turtles that come ashore annually on these windswept islands, three generations of the Rutledge family experience a season of return, rebirth, and growth. Part of the Beach House series. Goodreads Reviews Back to Goodreads

Read More

Dry, Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

When the California drought escalates to catastrophic proportions, one teen is forced to make life and death decisions for her family in this harrowing story of survival. The drought—or the Tap-Out, as everyone calls it—has been going on for a while now. Everyone’s lives have become an endless list of […]

Read More

The Golden Rule, Amanda Craig

Earnest economic expositions and detours on “the national quarrel” over leaving the EU, along with marriage’s financial disadvantages for women and the damage done to the Cornish landscape by climate change, sit side-by-side with what Hannah refers to self-consciously as “the murder plot”. –The Guardian Goodreads Reviews Back to Goodreads

Read More

Tales of Two Planets, John Freeman

Though not a book of just fiction, editor John Freeman compiled poetry, short fiction, and essays from some of the world’s best creative voices on the subject of climate change and inequality. Galvanized by his conversations with writers and activists around the world, Freeman engaged with some of today’s most […]

Read More