Interview with Deneen Simpson of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection
This interview with Deneen Simpson, Director of Environmental Justice for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, first appeared in our tenth print annual, available here. The interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
apt
Can you tell us a bit about your personal perspective on environmental justice and how that has informed your work?
Deneen Simpson
Living in an…
Interview with Leslie Fields of the Sierra Club
Interview with Leslie Fields of the Sierra Club
This interview with Leslie Fields, National Director of Policy Advocacy and Legal for the Sierra Club, first appeared in our tenth print annual, available here. The interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
apt
To start us off, can you share your perspective on environmental justice and how that has informed your work as a lawyer and an advocate?
Leslie Fields
Environmental justice…
apt Issue 10: Climate Change – Available for Preorder
We’re pleased to announce that our tenth print issue, focused entirely on climate change, is now available for preorder.
We know that the last couple of months have been a difficult time for so many, our staff included. The world looked very different when we began working on this issue. Now, as we face a different kind of crisis, it would be easy to put other monumental challenges on the back burner. If this pandemic has taught us anything, though, it’s that we’re all deeply connected and we cannot solve one problem while ignoring others. The overlapping, intersecting problems of our world—coronavirus, climate change, economic inequality, racism, human rights, and so many more— must be viewed as systemic challenges that call for coordinated action to find solutions.
We hope that the stories, poems, essays, and visual art in this issue make a contribution to our shared understanding of the impacts that climate change has on people, cultures, and the natural world.
apt Issue 10: Climate Change – Available for Preorder was originally published on Aforementioned Productions
Announcing Our Climate Change Special Issue
We’re pleased to announce that our tenth print issue, focused entirely on climate change, is now available for preorder
Writers for Migrant Justice: September 4 in Back Bay
We’re so proud to be one of the sponsors for next week’s Writers for Migrant Justice: Poetry Reading & Fundraiser in Boston. We hope you’ll be there to support the work being done to help migrant families at our southern border. The organizers have gathered a stellar group of readers: Danielle Legros Georges, Natalie Shapero, Martín Espada, Nicole Terez Dutton, Jennifer Jean, U-Meleni Mhlaba-Adebo, Pablo Medina, Yara Liceaga Rojas, Willy Ramirez, and more.
A note from the organizers: “In a time where we are all asking What can I do? reading and hearing writing that holds witness to the ongoing cruelty and inhumanity happening at our border and, importantly, fundraising to help provide urgently needed aid to detained children and adults is a small and necessary action to help fight these injustices. Please join Boston’s literary community in protesting the actions of our government through poetry.”
If you can, we hope you’ll join us Wednesday, September 4th, 6-7:30pm at Arlington Street Church in Boston. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Drinks, snacks, and appetizers available for purchase. Location is accessible. The event is free and open to the public, but donations are encouraged and appreciated.
Writers for Migrant Justice: September 4 in Back Bay was originally published on Aforementioned Productions
Interview with Mass Poetry
We recently did an interview with Erica Charis-Molling of Mass Poetry, in which we talk about publishing, editing, and all of the wonderful and difficult parts of running a small press. You can read the full interview on Mass Poetry’s site.
Interview with Mass Poetry was originally published on Aforementioned Productions
apt Issue 10: Climate Change – Call for Submissions
We’ve just opened submissions for the tenth print issue of apt, due out in spring 2020. For this issue, we are seeking to publish new work that addresses climate change. Topics we’re especially interested in include:
- Environmental, economic, and intergenerational justice
- Community-based responses to climate change
- Physical- and mental-health impacts of climate change
- Biodiversity and species/ecosystem conservation
- Environmental policy and programs
- Intersectional views of climate change
Check out our guidelines page for full details about what we’re looking for and how to submit.
apt Issue 10: Climate Change – Call for Submissions was originally published on Aforementioned Productions
Issue 10: Climate Change – Call for Submissions
We’ve just opened submissions for the tenth print issue of apt, due out in spring 2020.
Excerpts from “Why I Am Not a Pianist” by Sam Cha
So it was summer, maybe. Summer in Seoul.
*
I remember feeling mute and expectant.
I was growing again into a quiet.
*
When I moved back to Korea I was seven and a half. I got on the plane late at night, on the 24th of January, 1986. I got off the plane and discovered it was early in the morning on January 26th.
I’ve traveled into the future, I thought, as I hugged my mother, who I didn’t…
Excerpts from “Tidal Wave” by Matthew Morris
My high school friends and I—college seniors now—left Buffalo Wild Wings after midnight. We had laser-tagged that evening, and then we had caroused. At the bar, Peter ordered a Sweet Baby Jesus. And I learned people sometimes fry pickles.
In the minivan, we groped for sound. I sat in back, ducking furniture. Jeremy handed me a cable, which I was to plug in, which I did. We drove into the night.
J…