Exploring Ecopoetry with Guest Judge Craig Santos Perez

Craig Santos Perez, award-winning poet and Guest Judge for our Nature & Environmental Poetry Competition, writes about the rhythms of the natural world and how we are deeply connected to our environment. “Writing place is an important aspect of my poetry. Ecopoetry is deeply rooted in place because it encourages us to connect to where we live or where we are from.”

Read on to learn all about his work with ecopoetry and his advice for writing a winning competition entry!

You teach ecopoetry at the University of Hawaiʻi, Mānoa. Tell us – what exactly is ecopoetry? Is it more than just poems about nature?

Yes, I have been teaching ecopoetry for ten years. I usually expand the definition of ecopoetry to include poetry about nature, wilderness, ecology, environmental justice, animals, waste, toxins, plastic, viruses, climate change, disasters, and more. I also explore how ecopoetry is poetry that embodies natural cycles, movements, sounds, etc., in the formal elements of the poem (e.g., the type of poem, its line breaks, stanzas).

You grew up on the Pacific Island of Guåhan (Guam) and now live on Oahu, Hawaiʻi. Both islands feature prominently in your poetry. How does place inform your writing, and how does it play a role in ecopoetry more broadly?

Writing place is an important aspect of my poetry. Ecopoetry is deeply rooted in place because it encourages us to connect to where we live or where we are from. Guam and Hawaiʻi are two places that have shaped who I am and how I write. As a reader, I enjoy poetry that teaches me about other places I have never been. 

Many of your poems deal with environmental justice, pollution, and climate change and how they will affect future generations: “What will / our daughter / be able / to plant / in this / paradise of / fugitive dust,” you ask. For our future generations who are writing poetry today: What advice do you have when it comes to wielding poetry as a tool for environmental activism? 

Poetry is a creative expression of our deep thoughts and feelings, experiences and struggles, fears and anxieties, hopes and dreams. Poetry can help us reckon with the traumas of environmental injustice and climate change. Moreover, ecopoetry can be an empowering way to give us a voice to speak our truths. I dream of a day when future poets will address environmental concerns in their work and be brave enough to share their poems at rallies, protests, and climate change marches.

Just last month, wildfires ravaged the town of Lahaina on Maui, Hawaiʻi, making it one of the deadliest wildfires on record in the U.S. As climate change disasters become more frequent, many of us will see loss close to home. How can poetry help us to process, grieve, and heal? 

The wildfires in Maui, as well as wildfires around the world this year, have been tragic. The victims of the fires and those who lost family members and home may be processing this trauma for years (even generations). Poetry and other forms of creative expression like art and music can help our communities process, grieve, and heal by giving people a venue to articulate their feelings. Poetry is a creative act that can symbolically counteract the destruction around us.  

What are you looking for in a winning nature poem, and what tips do you have for our young writers, especially those who are new to the genre? 

To me, the most powerful ecopoems are personal, emotionally authentic, place-based, and attentive to the natural world. Poems that describe as many senses as possible (sight, sounds, smells, tastes, textures, etc.) are often more memorable.

About the Guest Judge: Craig Santos Perez is an indigenous Chamoru from Guam. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of San Francisco and a Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of six books of poetry and the academic monograph Navigating Chamoru Poetry: Indigeneity, Aesthetics, and Decolonization (2022). He is also the co-editor of seven anthologies, including Geopoetics in Practice (2019) and Indigenous Pacific Islander Eco-Literatures (2022). He is a professor in the English department and affiliate faculty with the Center for Pacific Islands Studies and the Indigenous Politics program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.