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Welcome to the first issue of my newsletter.
 
This summer, my book, “Brief Eulogies for Lost Animals: An Extinction Reader” was named a “Must Read” in the 2019 Massachusetts Book Awards. A luncheon for the Awards was held in September at the State House and it was an honor to be part of a celebration for reading, literacy and literature.
 
This past June I went to the Biennial meeting of the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment (ASLE) at UC Davis. The theme of the conference was “Paradise on Fire”, a reference to last year’s historic wildfire, the deadliest in California history. I presented selections from my extinction book  in one of two panels on “Writing with Animals” and both panels were well attended. I noticed over the course of the conference that one of the topics that kept coming up was grief. There was a palpable sense that we’re losing the world that we knew and this is a loss none of us expected. But that is the reality and we must face it and go on. I love the Joanna Macy quote: “It looks bleak. Big deal, it looks bleak.” I can’t say that I’ve internalized it yet, but I do take notice when she says, “Yes, it looks bleak. But you are still alive now. You are alive with all the others, in this present moment. And because the truth is speaking in the work, it unlocks the heart.” I saw this in action in an event I went to last month: a climate change healing circle.
 
Yes, a healing circle. Or a talking circle, or a sharing night or what have you. It was advertized by Extinction Rebellion and hosted at a private residence. Five of us attended, including the host, and briefly the evening went like this: a round of introductions, a round of gratitude, a round of sharing what we felt when we thought about nature or climate, and a round of connecting to a natural object. The host spent time introducing each round and making sure everyone was comfortable and he later told us that he got most of the activities from Joanna Macy’s book, “Coming Back to Life,” written with Molly Brown. For example, for the opening round of introductions, we were asked to say how we arrived at the host’s home both physically and emotionally. How were we feeling, really? The latter part opened a door for us to share something personal. What impressed me about the evening was how quickly we got to places that held deep emotional resonance. Only two people knew each other, but round after round we were sharing personal feelings about the climate crisis and extinction. We vented, consoled, ranted, listened, and grieved.
 
As we wrapped up the evening, everyone expressed gratitude for the opportunity to express their feelings in such responsive community. It was a directed, but honest conversation, something that none of us had been having in our daily lives. For my part, it felt good to share, and to listen, and I plan to attend future events. I took it truly as a chance to open up to the losses we’re experiencing and in doing so connect more deeply to others and to the things we’re fighting for – to “unlock the heart” in the way that Joanna Macy says.
 
DH Nonfiction Links
In the fall issue of The Amsterdam Quarterly, which has the theme “Borderlands”, you can find my short prose piece, “Between Thailand and India”
https://www.amsterdamquarterly.org/aq_issues/aq26-borderlands/daniel-hudon-between-thailand-and-india/
 
If you have access to Appalachia Journal, I have an essay called “A Week in the Wild at Medawisla” in the Fall 2019 issue. I will also make the essay available for purchase in a booklet (see below).
 
You can also check for my long essay, “Dehorning the Rhino,” to appear in The Smart Set this winter.
 
DH Poetry Links
A few years ago, I read the book, “Diary of a Russian Cosmonaut: 211 Days in Space,” by Valentin Lebedev and was so smitten with his prose and descriptions that I wrote a poem about his experience, now found here:
https://thewildword.com/poetry-daniel-hudon/
 
I’ve long been a fan of the Belgian surrealist Rene Magritte and have five ekphrastic poems about his works in Problematique, pages 22-27, which you can download:
https://dinkbooks.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/problematique-v-1.pdf
 
DH Fiction Links
There’s a quirky humor magazine from Ottawa called Feathertale, which might be the most decorated small literary humor magazine in Canada. In December, they published two of my short fiction pieces, “Our Universe” and “In the Morning” – my famous one-sentence story. Both of these will soon be available as little books (see below), but in the meantime, you can check out the former on their website:
https://feathertale.com/short-fiction/our-universe/
 
DH Writes
My new project this winter is to get my writing out to readers in convenient forms, so one thing you’ll see coming to my website are two varieties of “little books.” The first are short nonfiction or fiction stories that are printed on a single sheet of paper and folded up into an eight-page book. These are true pocket books and you can read them in one sitting and share them with friends. The second are longer essays and stories that are printed “chapbook” or pamphlet-style.
 
Thanks for reading!
 
All the best,
Daniel Hudon
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