CLIMATE
STORIES
What is your climate story?
Telling and understanding our stories of experiencing the climate crisis is a powerful way to build resilience and ignite action.
Writing as Witnessing:
An Open Genre Climate Storytelling Workshop for Adults
In partnership with New England-based author Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder, Maine Climate Action Now is pleased to offer an open genre climate storytelling workshop for adults in winter 2025. This six-part online workshop will explore the written word as a tool for navigating the shifting edges of climate change. Together, we’ll tap into our personal experiences of living within the transformations and many dimensions of this moment—rising seas, ecosystem change, climate justice, sensory orientation / disorientation, and visioning ways forward. We’ll delve into multiple genres and modes of storytelling such as creative nonfiction, poetry, and flash fiction, each of us working to create a final piece of writing to share.
Ages: Adults (18+)
Dates: Weekly on Tuesday evenings, 7:00-8:30, Jan. 14 to Feb. 18, 2025 (6 sessions)
Location: Virtual (Zoom)
Cost: FREE
Starting in 2022, MCAN has held workshops for youth on Crafting Your Own Climate Story, led by teaching artists from The Telling Room. Creative writing is a valuable outlet to share personal impacts of climate change, help process climate anxiety and grief, build collective resilience, and inspire us to action to confront the climate crisis.
Enjoy these youths’ stories!
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Crafting Your Own Climate Fiction workshop
at The Telling Room in Portland, ME
Spring 2024
Ben Brown
The Red String
Gorham, ME
Age 17
Emma Price
The Librarian of Humanity
Portland, ME
Age 14
"The sun has almost fallen behind the curve of the earth when at last I glimpse a settlement in the distance. Relief floods through my body as my feet quicken along with my pounding heart.
A collection of small structures stands out against the stark backdrop of barren desert sand."
– Emma Price
Jael Mbadu
Hope for a Better Future
Portland, ME
Age 14
Landu Mfutila Mambamba
Ficção Climática
Portland, ME
Age 18
L.M.
Lua...Estrelas
Portland, ME
Maravilha João
Além do Silêncio
Portland, ME
Age 19
"Over the next few months, we collaborated with other groups,
raised funds, and got the local government to implement stricter environmental regulations. Slowly, we started to see changes. The beaches were cleaner, the air felt fresher, and there was a renewed sense of community. It wasn’t a huge change, but we were finally taking accountability"
– Jael Mbadu
Natalia Mbadu
A Chance to Heal
Portland, ME
Age 16
Nova Root
Waking Moments
Scarborough, ME
Age 15
Patricia Samuel
Sol
Portland, ME
Age 20
Starling
The Ballad of Choosing Cars
Portland, ME
Age 13
Tin Thai
The Polluted Earth
Portland, ME
Age 13
"Acredito eu que cada um de nós tem seu meio de consolo, e para mim é a lua, ela é o meu meio de consolo, junto das estrelas, pois a noite na qual só tem estrelas no céu sem a lua...
( I believe that each one of us has her own way of finding solace, and for me it’s the moon, she is my means of solace, along with the stars... )"
– L.M.
Crafting Your Own Climate Fiction
virtual workshop
Fall 2023
Andrea Lancia
Another Creature of Flesh and Blood
Portland High School
Age 17
Claire McGlinchey
The Glow
Center for an Ecology-Based Economy
Age 25
Kayley Buzzell
A Message to the Ministry: Files Incomplete
Sabattus, ME
Age 16
"After a beat of blinding light, we blinked until our vision returned to reveal a golden aura draped over the world. Silky threads of light now weaved across our view, and we traced their path until we found the origin: our chests."
–Claire McGlinchey
Meg Charest
A Wilder’s Farewell
Hardy Girls
Age 25
Phoebe Little
Tides of Return
Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance
Age 25
Remick Matty
Never Enough
Traip Academy
Age 14
"But she couldn’t get Maine out of her mind. This place she couldn’t remember. This place her family had lived for generations before her. And she couldn’t get Rosie out of her mind. The sister she had never met. The girl who lived only in a collection of notebooks and her parents' hushed whispers."
–Phoebe Little
Sylvie Holmes
Surface Tension
Portland High School
Age 15
Thea Dugas
Trapped by the Heat
Portland High School
Age 14
"I'm witnessing my only home being taken away by a ball of rage and ignorance and inactivity to stop this global crisis. Just as I simply watched the trees of my own forest burn to ash, I stand as my house sinks lower and lower from the stress of the flames."
–Thea Dugas
Summer 2023
Crafting Your Own Climate Poetry workshop
at Waterfall Arts in Belfast, ME
"Ignorance is a privilege given to few but claimed by many."
– Laura Hepner
"But perhaps someday you will sit
On your crumbling porch sinking into the sea
And wonder where these birds are
Tiny bundles of fluffy feathers and energy
Perhaps you will miss them."
– Scarlet Labbé-Watson
"He looked back, savoring the green grass, the crashing waterfall, savoring the memory of it all. He then turned back and walked up the stairs, through the hall, and out the door into his polluted, dry world."
– Ian Seckler
Jerovain Nganzobo
Climate Story
University of Maine at Machias
Age 25
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"No one wishes for their home to crumble
nor to shift with the swelling tides..."
– Makili Matty
Spring 2022
Our first workshop, 'Telling Your Climate Story', with the Telling Room for youth across the state
"Natua's fury burned hotter than magma. She was brutal. Plague after plague, each more threatening than the last. The ground shook, oceans churned, fires devoured everything. Even the plants and animals answered her call for vengeance, eager to bite back."
– Abigail Holubrinkle
Isabelle Rogers
Eraser
Sunrise Movement Franklin County/MYCJ
Age 21
"The relationships we made in the nearly 4 year legal battle grew into a resilient network of communities across the state. We have seen many victories since, all crucial steps in the direction of water justice."
– Luke Sekera-Flanders
"A little girl sits on the ground in her backyard, tiny fingers deliciously intertwined with the soft blades of grass. The world belongs to her, and she belongs to the world."
– Tamra Benson