Climate change alarm bells prompt author into action with Irish anthology
Alice Kinsella, co-editor of the Empty House anthology.
Back when she was an idealistic teenager, Alice Kinsella wanted to study conservation. In the intervening years, the Dublin-born writer says she was "distracted by poetry", but now her environmental interests and literary pursuits have intersected in a new book she has co-edited with Nessa O'Mahony.
Empty House is a multi-genre anthology of mostly Irish writing responding to the climate crisis. it combines celebrations of the natural world that is at risk of being lost, as well as prophecies of doom and also some constructive hope as to how we can prevent catastrophe. The contributors include Luka Bloom, Jan Carson, Paula Meehan, Rick O'Shea and Michael Viney.
Kinsella, 28, says she has long been worried about climate change but put it to the back of her mind, presuming we'd eventually face up to the issue. But when she saw a map projecting the rise of sea levels and read an article about the extinction of bees, she had a moment realisation of how bad things really are.
"Why are we not talking about anything else?" she reflected.
This was three years ago when Kinsella had just finished her Masters degree and had some free time and wanted to do something useful. "I knew that as a writer I couldn't do anything personally all that useful. But there was something I could do. I had been the assistant editor of a charity anthology in 2016 so I knew something about editing anthologies and I knew they could raise money and awareness. I decided to try and use my skills to help Friends of the Earth."
Kinsella approached Lisa Frank, director of Doire Press about publishing an anthology. "The climate crisis is something Lisa is passionate about as well so she was on board from the get-go," says Kinsella.
Writers were contacted to come on board.
"When you look at the climate crisis first, the only way to feel is terrified. But then you realise that is not in any way constructive and that's what really emerged in the submissions. We don't know if we can ever get back to where we were but there's so much than can still be done. We're not going to stop humanity having an effect on the climate completely but there's a huge amount of damage limitation that can be done. That's the only option. We can't just give up which would make things a lot worse. I think there's a lot of room in the middle between extinction and Utopia."
As a mother of a boy going on two years of age, Kinsella says that bringing a child into the world was a real wake-up call. Her anxiety about climate change was always somewhat abstract, similar to the way many of us feel about death.
"It's fear but it was slightly removed. That changes with time and how you perceive time. By 2050, my son will be the age that I am now. Looking at the statistics and looking at where the sea levels will be by then and what animals will be extinct, it suddenly feels more real. You're aware of any threat to your baby. You are also stripped of choice. You don't get to give up because you have a child. You have to make the world ok and liveeable in. You have to give children the opportunity to thrive."
Included in the anthology are contributions by some young activists including Cork's Saoi O'Connor who quit mainstream school to campaign full time with her friend, the Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Greta Thunberg.
Kinsella hopes that when her son grows up, he won't suffer the same anxiety as many young people do today. "I want him to know that the world is full of good people and that he's part of a community. I want the worst to be behind for his generation so that they're repairing, not rescuing."
- The title of the anthology comes from a phrase in Catherine Phil MacCarthy's poem, 'Night Sky'. 'Could it be sometime/we are not there,/gone without trace,/planet earth, an empty house.'
- In his prose contribution, 'Little Blue Vase', Luka Bloom recalls driving through New South Wales in Australia. He writes that on New Year's Eve 2019, sitting in "lovely north west Clare, I cannot ignore that the town of Braidwood, like so many towns in Australia, is surrounded by fire, ash and smoke."
- Mercury Rising is the title of a poem, printed in the shape of a thermometer, by Moyra Donaldson. She writes that in 2100, 'bees trees grass/rhizomes moss/corals locusts/by this date/fifty percent of/every species/on earth extinct/'
- In Untitled, Saoi O'Connor writes: 'if you have ever been carried in the body of a breaking wave/then you know something of what it is like/to march with 10,000 people at your back/the rocks are unconquerable but we are endless/we go on and on and on./'
- Empty House will be launched on Earth Day, Thursday April 22, at 7.30pm. The launch will be live streamed on Facebook, YouTube and www.doirepress.com. The book costs €15
