THE NATURE OF OUR TIMES: POEMS ON AMERICA’S LANDS, WATERS, WILDLIFE, AND OTHER NATURAL WONDERS
A companion to the First National Nature Assessment (NNA1)
Forthcoming, Fall 2025 from Paloma Press, in collaboration with Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University and Poets for Science
Luisa A. Igloria, Aileen Cassinetto, and David Hassler (Editors)
BACKGROUND
Partly inspired by the National Climate Assessment (NCA), the United States Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) is conducting the nation’s first ever National Nature Assessment (NNA1) under the authority of the Global Change Research Act of 1990. The NNA1 report will focus on themes surrounding Conservation and Natural Resource Management, Economic Interests, Human Health and Well-Being, and Safety and Security, with the cross-cutting areas of Climate Change and Equity woven throughout proposed themes as identified through federal agency, public, and Tribal engagement efforts.
Phil Levin, National Nature Assessment Director, White House Office of Science & Technology Policy, describes this as an effort to “take stock of nature and nature’s benefits.” The goal is the creation of a future roadmap, informed by the best available evidence, to better protect the country’s lands, waters, and wildlife. “Nature matters to every part of our lives, but we also know that nature is changing,” says Levin, “the NNA will take a critical look at who is—and who isn’t—benefiting from nature or suffering the consequences of nature loss.”
ANTHOLOGY PROJECT DESCRIPTION
As an additional opportunity to highlight the First National Nature Assessment (NNA1), the editors of the anthologies, Dear Human at the Edge of Time: Poems on Climate Change in the United States, a companion to the Fifth National Climate Assessment (Paloma Press, 2023), and Dear Vaccine: Global Voices Speak to the Pandemic (Kent State University Press, 2022) are issuing a call for submissions for a forthcoming poetry anthology to be published in Fall 2025, to coincide with the scheduled public release of the First National Nature Assessment (NNA1) draft. Additionally, NNA1 authors will have the option of citing excerpts from the anthology as epigraphs in the NNA1 final report which will be released in 2026.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES/INSTRUCTIONS
We are looking for poems that speak to the immense value of nature—for our children and future generations, for our own and the planet’s well-being, and the resilience and survival of our communities. We are looking for poems that query our current practices and what needs to change in our consideration of the natural world, and that show new understandings of what it means to co-exist in it.
Submissions accepted for the online gallery will be published immediately and entered into consideration for the print anthology forthcoming in 2025.
Editors will make final selections for the latter at or around the end of February 2025.
Each poem submission should be the original work of the author, and no longer than 50 lines.
Only one (1) poem will be included in the anthology per writer, should their work be selected.
Translations are welcome.
We cannot guarantee that non-traditional poem formatting will be preserved online.
We invite poems from all U.S. residents regardless of documentation status.
We invite poems especially from BIPOC poets and poets from historically under-resourced communities.
We invite poems that don’t use scientific jargon but instead offer vivid, specific, lyrical, and original imagery and language to embody lived experiences related to nature and/or nature loss—including but not limited to Nature and its Relationship to Cultural Heritage; Nature and the Economy; Nature, Human Health, and Well-Being; Nature, Safety, and Security; Nature and Equity; Nature and Climate Change.
We invite poems that offer specific hopes/visions for a better world and highlight “what nature provides to us in terms of its inherent worth, our culture, health, and well-being, jobs and livelihoods, safety, and more, while looking ahead to understand how these benefits might change in the future.” (globalchange.gov)
The most compelling submissions will be selected for their originality, creative use of language, and adherence to the overall theme.
The language and content of all submissions must be suitable for a national, public audience.
Submissions must observe the norms of civil discourse and not contain obscenity, explicit sexual material, nudity, profanity, graphic violence, calls or incitement to violence, commercial solicitation, or promotion.
Submissions must not contain material that could be considered abusive, inflammatory, denigrating, or disrespectful to any groups, individuals, or institutions.
The editors reserve the right to disqualify any submission that does not adhere to these criteria.
Accepted poems will be published in a print anthology with target release in Fall 2025, when the First National Nature Assessment (NNA1) draft is also scheduled for release. Additionally, NNA1 authors will have the option of citing excerpts from the anthology as epigraphs in the NNA1 final report which will be released in 2026.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE
On or before January 15, 2025
Decisions on acceptances will be announced at or around the end of February 2025.
EDITORS
Luisa A. Igloria & Aileen Cassinetto
Co-Editors (with Dr. Jeremy S. Hoffman) of Dear Human at the Edge of Time: Poems on Climate Change in the United States, a companion to the Fifth National Climate Assessment (2023)
Co-Editor of Dear Vaccine: Global Voices Speak to the Pandemic (2022)
*The Nature of Our Times microsite is designed and managed by Each+Every. For more information, please email nna.poems [at] gmail.com
DISCLAIMER
The U.S. Government, including the USGCRP and the NNA, does not endorse any products, services, activities, positions, statements, or policies of this project, and disclaims any appearance of improper or prohibited fundraising, partisan, or lobbying activities. No part of this project was initiated or funded by the U.S. Government. All project participants are acting in their individual capacities and are not representatives of the U.S. Government.
The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) was established by Presidential initiative in 1989 and mandated by Congress in the Global Change Research Act (GCRA) of 1990. Its mandate is to develop and coordinate “a comprehensive and integrated United States research program which will assist the Nation and the world to understand, assess, predict, and respond to human-induced and natural processes of global change.”
More background on the US Global Change Research Program and NNA1 is available here.
