The Climate Writing Awards invited young writers across the world to take a stand, penning poetry, flash fiction and letters on a range of issues pertinent to the climate crisis. From heartfelt letters to world leaders in Nigeria, Japan, the UK, and beyond, to a Sri Lankan poet writing to a daughter they may never have, to a Pakistani writer calling attention to the greed fueling greenwashing—these pieces demonstrate that writing, in all forms, can be a powerful tool for activism and advocacy.
Explore the winners and finalists below, along with commentary from Guest Judge Alexandria Villaseñor! The winning pieces and a selection of finalists can be read here.
Thank you to Seventh Generation for generously sponsoring the Awards.
WINNERS
Poetry Winner: To the daughter I may never have by Starlitskies (Sri Lanka)
I think this poem speaks to the ambivalence our generation is experiencing about having children. I felt the grief in this writer’s words, but it wasn’t grief about something that has happened, instead it was grief for something that is more than likely not going to happen. Humanity takes for granted things such as guiding the outstretched hand of a child, reading to a child and answering a child’s endless questions about the wonders of the world. This poem helps us to consider how it feels when, as a society, we’re no longer able to have those simple and profound interactions with a child. This poem also reveals our species’ urge for a generational legacy, but then asks us how we would feel if our generational legacy is death and destruction. When we talk about the climate crisis in policy and sometimes even in activism, we often limit the timeframe of the crisis to our own lifetime. Little discussion is given to addressing the generational loss that will occur after we’re gone, and this poem helps us to understand what that may look like if we don’t act.
Flash Fiction Winner: Swamped by GetalongRanchWriter (US)
This dystopian, futuristic short story is so plausible it’s kind of shocking. To think about how in less than 100 years young people could go to work as “Mudsifters”, and we’d create new time demarcations in our day such as “Shadesdown”, is a unique perspective that stands in contrast to the culture of our society today. I appreciated the way this story wraps so many different aspects of the climate crisis into this casual, everyday moment of the narrator. The boat scraping the “trash-littered bottom” makes visible the plastic pollution crisis of today, whereas the “Tideswall” shows us how our society desperately wants to survive and will take extreme measures to protect itself, even in its final moments. Today, we mine what’s left of the dinosaurs for fuel and it’s been sold to us as making “a worthy future”. This story asks us to consider a future where we might mine what’s left of our current civilization for the same cause.
Advocacy Letter Writing Winner: No one mourns the dinosaurs by Luie (United Kingdom)
The way in which this advocacy letter gets us out of the current moment and has us thinking epochally is remarkable. The author makes the climate crisis visible over vast stretches of time, which is often challenging in advocacy work. By invoking the deep time of the dinosaurs, and the generational time of the Prime Minister’s children, the author connects these two different timelines and expands the reader’s understanding of the crisis. The way in which the author brushes up against being a doomsayer at eighteen shows the reader just how desperate our generation is for action. This letter helps us to experience the crisis through our senses as well, and we’re able to visualize, smell and feel the losses that we’re experiencing now and will experience in the future. Finally, this letter demands the implementation of solutions, and highlights the core problem in addressing the climate crisis: we have the solutions, now we just need the political will.
FINALISTS
Poetry:
Greenwashing and Greenbacks by Rohana Khattak (Pakistan)
Secondhand Smoke by kmn (US)
Mother River by MichelleF (US)
do not stand at my grave and weep by typos, many of them (US)
The longest-lasting tropical cyclone looks today like tomorrow’s clearest sky. by Lindah Phiri (Zambia)
the screaming willow project by joeD (Malaysia)
Flash Fiction:
Cathedrals by OneWhoDreamsAlone (US)
Memory of Water by Isabelle_ (Hong Kong)
the stardust in our lungs. by Andr0meda (US)
Advocacy Letter Writing:
Dear Jeremy Rockliff by Ninja girl (Australia)
A Desperate Plea by Reacrys (Singapore)
The Growing Problem by BillyJoeBobTheThird (Singapore)
When Scientific Solutions Come Handy by Anna A. (Philippines)
Thank you to everyone who entered, and congratulations to all the winners!