PALOMA PRESS

DEAR HUMAN AT THE EDGE OF TIME
Poems on Climate Change in the United States

Edited by Luisa A. Igloria, Aileen Cassinetto & Jeremy S. Hoffman

Winner, 20th Annual Best Book Awards, American Book Fest

Identifiers: LCCN 2023009083 | ISBN 9781734496543 
Classification: LCC PS595.C554 D43 2023 | DDC 811/.6--dc23/eng/20230804 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023009083 
Book Design: C. Sophia Ibardaloza
Paper | 6 x 9 | 176 pages
Publication Date: September 15, 2023
List Price: $20 (price may vary by retailer)
Distributors: Barnes and Noble, Bookshop, Amazon, Waterstones
Contact: editor[at]palomapress.org 

In Fall 2023, the congressionally-mandated Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5) report is scheduled for release under the U.S. Global Change Research Program. Crucial information it has gathered will help the nation assess and respond to changes in the natural and man-made environment. The anthology Dear Human at the Edge of Time: Poems on Climate Change in the United States was created out of the need to tell our human stories, alongside climate science, and is offered as a companion to NCA5.

Edited by 2021 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellows Luisa A. Igloria and Aileen Cassinetto & NCA5 Chapter Lead Dr. Jeremy S. Hoffman, Dear Human at the Edge of Time features the work of 70+ contributors including Union of Concerned Scientists Director of Strategic Climate Analytics Erika Spanger and U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón, with a Foreword by Claire Wahmanholm and Afterword by Dr. Sam Illingworth.

The anthology, which grew out of the National Poets Laureate civic projects, was made possible with support from the Academy of American Poets and Mellon Foundation‘s laureate initiative and a grant from the San Mateo County Office of Arts and Culture & San Mateo County Arts Commission, with programmatic support from the American Geophysical Union’s Science and Society Track, Burlingame Public Library, Clarion Performing Arts Center, Elizabeth River Project & Ryan Resilience Lab, Elizabeth River Trail, Exploratorium, Institute for Coastal Adaptation & Research at Old Dominion University, Midwest Climate Resilience Conference, National Endowment for the Arts, The Nurture Nature Center, Philippine American Writers and Artists, The Poetry Lighthouse, Poets for Science, Rhino Poetry, San Francisco Public Library, Soul Bone Literary Festival, South San Francisco Public Library, the UC Berkeley Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, U.S. Global Change Research Program, and Wick Poetry Center.

The Dear Human interactive microsite, developed in partnership with Poets for Science & Wick Poetry Center, was launched at AGU23: American Geophysical Union’s Annual Meeting and at the Exploratorium.

---

Praise from President Joe Biden
"As we celebrate the rollout of the Fifth National Climate Assessment, let this inspiring collection be a reminder that there is nothing beyond our capacity if we work together."

Praise from California State Senator and Chair of the Senate Budget Subcommittee on Resources, Environmental Protection and Energy Josh Becker
"I’m so proud of former San Mateo County Poet Laureate Aileen Cassinetto, Dr. Luisa A. Igloria and Dr. Jeremy S. Hoffman’s anthology ‘Dear Human (at the Edge of Time)’. Our climate crisis is the foremost issue in our world right now, and while we still have time to save ourselves, that time is waning. The poetry in this book is as complex as our world, but it offers hope for a better tomorrow.”

Praise from Renato Redentor Constantino, Deputy Chair of the Expert Advisory Group of the 58-government Climate Vulnerable Forum
“This book reminds us we are in a state of collapse as well as rebirth. It is both lamp and spear, lyric and shield. It is a companion we will need as we navigate the long dark night of the climate crisis and the rubble of human certainties and conceits.”

Praise from Jane Hirshfield
"The DEAR HUMAN anthology is rich, deep, and ultimately heartening… So many voices in this book are new to me—that too is heartening. The informedness of the poems. Their integration of fact and feeling… Rachel Carson wrote about the melting ice caps in the late 1940s. Gary Snyder saw what the oil economy was doing in that decade also. The first Earth Day? Not until 1970. We'd already landed on the moon before people began to take in what was needed here on earth… and then came decades of willful not-doing, self-blinding, consuming. But… we saw. We bore witness. There were steps forward along with steps backward. And now more than ever, at last, the chorus of earth-defenders and earth-embracers grows omnipresent, visible not least in the pages of this book."

Praise from Dr. Sam Illingworth, Associate Professor at Edinburgh Napier University and Chief Executive Editor, Geoscience Communication
“I am inspired by the power of poetry to move us, to challenge us, and to connect us to one another and to the natural world. Dear Human at the Edge of Time is a testament to the vital role that poetry can play in raising awareness of the climate crisis and in spurring us to action.”

Praise from Dr. Edward Maibach, Distinguished University Professor & Director at the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication
"Focusing on climate change—as I have done for nearly two decades—has a terrifying way of accelerating time. Like a quiet walk in the woods, these poems coaxed time to slow down for me, and occasionally stand still. That stillness created space in which to see further and more  broadly. I'm grateful to these poets for having spoken so deeply to me, and to time."

Praise from Cristina Veresan, STEAM Educator and Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow
"I'm heartened that this poetry anthology will accompany the 5th National Climate Assessment, for it beautifully explores what is at stake with both grief and hope. I highly recommend it to all humans! Secondary teachers: consider incorporating it into your science or humanities courses. Discussing these rich poems will enhance your curriculum and allow students to process climate change impacts in a way that supports healthy social-emotional development. Perhaps it may even inspire some student climate change poetry!"

Praise from Claire Wahmanholm, author of Meltwater (Milkweed Editions, 2023) and winner of the Montreal Prize 2022
“An anthology like this represents just a sliver of people who are deeply invested in this work. For every poet in this anthology—each of whom care desperately about the world and what we are doing to it—there are approximately 2,500,739 people in the United States—some poets, but mostly not—who feel the same way: that we are in serious trouble; that greed has brought us here; that we love the world and think it is worth saving; that we are willing to reimagine our societies in order to do it.”

Praise from Dr. Jessica Whitehead, Joan P. Brock Endowed Executive Director, Institute for Coastal Adaptation and Resilience, Old Dominion University 
“...I’m so impressed by the work of the poets in this anthology, and the concepts they bring you behind Dear Human at the Edge of Time. This work is a unique opportunity to bring feeling through poetry together with the science of the forthcoming Fifth U.S. National Climate Assessment, which also, for the first time upon its release in the late fall, will bring visual art into the report. When I was a member of the Sustained National Climate Assessment Federal Advisory Committee in 2016-17, we were charged with thinking about how to make the NCA more engaging, more useful, and more relevant for everyone who calls the United States home. Dear Human at the Edge of Time is an amazing concept from Luisa A. Igloria, Aileen Cassinetto, and Jeremy Hoffman, which answers that charge in the best way possible.”

---

Complete list of contributors: 
Ernesto L. Abeytia, Bradley Allf, Anna Bartel, Kristin Berkey-Abbott, Mary Grace Bertulfo, Amanda M. Blake, Dave Bonta, Cassandra Bousquet, Allen Braden, Cynthia Buiza, Kate Cell, Eva Chen, Everett Cruz, Natalie Damjanovich-Napoleon, Sofia Fall, Molly Fisk, Mary Fitzpatrick, Eric Forsbergh, Sue Davis Gabbay, Lee Anne Gallaway-Mitchell, Gail Giewont, Caitlin Gildrien, Annette Holland, John Hoppenthaler, Catherine Hulshof De La Peña, E.W.I. Johnson, Melinda Koyanis, Marisa Lin, Karen Llagas, Katharyn Howd Machan, David S. Maduli, Kindra McDonald, Joshua McPeak, Mac Mestayer, Claire Millikin, Rajiv Mohabir, Heidi Mordhost, Susanne Moser, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, January Gill O’Neil, Calvin Olsen, Craig Santos Perez, Jeanine Pfeiffer, Ngoc Pham, Alice Plane, Kyle Potvin, Aman Rahman, Chelsea Rathburn, Sheri Reda, Kim Roberts, Lee Ann Roripaugh, Ellen Sander, Alan Semerdjian, Emily Schulten, Jordan Sher, Kim Shuck, Martha Silano, Brian Sonia-Wallace, Erika Spanger, Mark Spitzer, Eileen R. Tabios, Ellen Taylor, Sony Ton-Aime, Angela Narciso Torres, Brian Turner, Cindy Veach, Claire Wahmanholm, Leana Weissberg, Lesley Wheeler, Wendi White, Denise Wilcox, Maw Shein Win, Diana Woodcock, Khaty Xiong, & U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón. 

Also featured or found in:
ASLE: Association for the Study of Literature and Environment
Library of Congress
The Poetry Lighthouse 
Poetry Society of Virginia
RHINO Poetry
Roger Williams University
South San Francisco Public Library
TeachingBooks