What can forests, swamps, grasslands, and wildlife inhabiting the earth show us about surviving exile, displacement, rootlessness, and the persistence of being? In “Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature,” Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian asks, “Who am I to despair when my ancestors and the ancestors of my loved ones fought so hard to survive? Who am I to resign myself to some abstracted ‘end of times,” when people have been struggling against colonialism and genocide for hundreds of years?” Turning to the word “queer” as motivation, Kaishian “summons a spirit of camaraderie and a history of defiance.” It is in this spirit of defiance that we will read and discuss a variety of poems by Franny Choi, Ross Gay, Rajiv Mohabir, and others. In this generative writing workshop, we will also have guided poetry prompts inspired by examples from our reading selections and quiet writing time to produce new poems that map out our postapocalyptic psyches. 

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