Call out for sci-fi/speculative poetry and fiction inspired by endangered species.

Writing has always helped people to imagine possibilities for themselves and the world around them. Use your imagination to support two projects saving endangered species: the Willow Tit Project, and the Ancients of the Future project which is working to protect 28 threatened species which live in ancient trees, including the Violet Click Beetle, the Royal Splinter Cranefly, Eagle’s-claw Lichen, Coral-tooth Fungi, Knothole Moss and the Noctule Bat.

The Willow Tit is found in post-industrial landscapes, excavating their own nest holes in rotting deadwood, and making a life in areas we might consider wastelands. What unexpected alliances might humans have with plants and animals? What life might spring up in places that have been written off?

Ancient trees provide homes for 2,000 species – they are whole ecosystems in themselves. The young trees being planted now will watch the world change. What might they see? And how can we protect them?

Back from the Brink is creating an anthology of poetry and fiction inspired by these projects. Send your speculative stories and sci-fi poems. They are looking for work which thinks about how humans and non-human beings relate to each other. They are particularly looking for work which includes the species the projects are working with in some way. 

The anthology will be edited by Katherine McMahon, a writer and arts facilitator currently in residence with Back From The Brink. 

“I think hard times are coming, when we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, and can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies, to other ways of being. And even imagine some real grounds for hope.” - Ursula le Guin