Wolverines in a Land of Wildfire

I first learned that About Place Journal would be dedicating its October issue to the more-than-human-world as a participant at the Kachemak Bay Writer’s Conference in May. Already a fan of the conference, I couldn’t resist making the trip to Homer, Alaska, to spend time with Robin Wall Kimmerer as the 2023 keynote.

Kimmerer is an esteemed botanist, a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, and one of the most eloquent authors I’ve ever read. Anyone familiar with Braiding Sweetgrass has experienced the transformative power of her words, which she infuses with agency and urgency on behalf of our wild kin. In Homer, her generous teachings made me feel profoundly supported in my own writerly efforts to advance the “personhood of all beings.” She also reminded her audience that storytelling is a gift, and that we have a responsibility to use this gift to inspire a worldview change.

So, at the conference, when guest editor Erin Hollowell announced a call for contributions to the then-forthcoming issue of About Place Journal, I was immediately moved to submit my work, “Wolverines in a Land of Wildfire.” For this essay, I had experimented with the abecedarian (A-to-Z) structure to write about and for wolverines, with the vision that the 26 sections would somehow create synergy for the reader. I hope I succeeded; I love that one colleague told me she felt like she was “reading a painting.” I also hope that my “painting” helps animate wolverines in your heart and imagination.

Like the sections of an abecedarian, the stories, poems, essays, and visual art comprising this issue of About Place Journal talk to each other in a way that compels me to quiet down and listen—to the elephants, to the sharks, to the birds, to the lichen. To the myriad, more-than-human forms of life who need us to hear their voices, now.