“Solastalgia… means something along the lines of a homesickness for the home you are already in, and it’s come to be used to describe an existential distress about climate change and the state of our environment.”
Solastalgia (JackLeg Press, 2023)
Could you tell us a bit about your growing up and your path to becoming a writer?
I’ve been writing since I was a small child. I enjoyed writing poems, and I wrote story after story about horses when I was in elementary school. It was my 10th grade expository writing teacher, a champion of my work, who really made me feel like I was a writer. Though I had dream of becoming a marine biologist and started college as a biology major, I quickly switched to English and began to take my writing life seriously. I started publishing my poetry just out of college, and my first collection came out in 2012. Though I’ve written primarily poetry for the majority of my career, I’ve also just finished a short story collection.
A question from Anna Laura Reeve: Do you understand your role in society—as a poet—to be influential, critical, observant, or something else?
One of my favorite quotes is by Henry James: “Be one of the people on whom nothing is lost!” I take this to heart as a poet, and I definitely feel that one of my roles is as an observer. But beyond observation, I absolutely feel that poetry has the potential to move people, to spark their curiosity, to make them think and question, and to encourage them to take action. I hope the poems in my most recent collection, which is about climate change and extinction, have the dual effect of making readers feel wonder and awe about the natural world as well as make them want to be better stewards of our planet.
How do you contend with saturation? The day’s news, the disasters, the crazy things, the flagged articles, the flagged books, the poetry tweets, the data the data the data. What’s your strategy to navigate your way home?
Though I feel it’s important to be an informed and active citizen, I limit my news intake to listening to NPR on my commute to and from work. I do spend time on social media, but I prefer it as a place to interact with and amplify the work of other writers. And while it’s important to engage with the happenings in the world, no matter how difficult, I think that in order to be fully present in that work, I also have to tend to my own mental health. I spend a lot of time reading and listening to podcasts, especially those that ignite my curiosity and challenge my brain.
A question from Karisma Price: Do you have any self-care practices you include when writing about something heavy?
Yes. I definitely balance writing about heavy material by spending time with friends and family, listening to music, experiencing art, practicing yoga, and being outside.
A question from Toni Ann Johnson: Why are you writing about what you’re writing about?
Much of my recent and current writing concerns climate change, extinction, and the Anthropocene age. This material can be dark, but I think that it’s important for us to sit with the darkness and to consider our role in its creation. I feel that the state of our planet is one of the most urgent issues facing us today, and I hope that my poetry can, in some small way, contribute toward necessary change.
What obsessions led you to write your book?
I have always loved animals and the natural world. And while the topics of Solastalgia can be depressing, there is also so much beauty and wonder to be celebrated in the more-than-human world. It was very rewarding to immerse myself in the issues surrounding some of my earliest loves.
How did you decide on the arrangement and title of your book?
Solastalgia is a word that means something along the lines of a homesickness for the home you are already in, and it’s come to be used to describe an existential distress about climate change and the state of our environment. It felt like the perfect title to capture the themes of my collection. I tried out several ideas for dividing the poems within the book, knowing that I wanted the sections to have some reference to the natural world. I settled on arranging the poems by the spheres of the Earth: biosphere (living things), lithosphere (land – also called the geosphere), atmosphere (air), and hydrosphere/cryosphere (water and ice).
What’s the oldest poem in your book? Or can you name one piece that catalyzed or inspired the rest of the book? What do you remember about writing it?
This collection began with what I call the “Anthropocene Blessings”. I was participating in an annual poem-a-day writing challenge for the month of December 2019, and I decided to write a series of short poems about a variety of endangered species, both plant and animal. I enjoyed researching each of the beings and wanted to raise awareness about their plights while also celebrating their beauty and uniqueness. These poems opened the door into writing about a variety of topics I wanted to explore about our human relationship with the planet and our more-than-human kin.
A question from Caroline M. Mar: What was the soundtrack of your book? Were there specific songs, musicians, or sounds that helped you access your writing?
While I don’t usually write to music, I do make one exception. I love the band Khruangbin and find that their music transports me to a creative zone. And I made a playlist that goes along with Solastalgia and includes songs about similar topics. You can check it out here.
A question from Lucien Darjeun Meadows: I’m always fascinated by ancestral lines, inheritances, and legacies. So, I would love to ask: What three (or so) authors, creatives, or works most influenced your collection? And/or, if readers are moved by your collection, who would you recommend we next seek out?
I love the growing genre of ecopoetry, and as I began writing Solastalgia, I was particularly inspired by the work of Camille Dungy, Nickole Brown, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, and Anne Haven McDonnell. I’d also recommend the work of Claire Wahmanholm, Hila Ratzabi, Elizabeth Bradfield, and Drew Lanham, among so many others. In the realm of fiction, I absolutely love Talia Lakshmi Kolluri’s short story collection, What We Fed to the Manticore. The stories are written from the point of view of animals, and they are all inventive and moving.
A question from Noreen Ocampo: What is something that fuels you as a writer, your writing practice, or just you as a human being?
One of my favorite things about myself is my ability to find wonder and joy in the smallest things. I feel like this way of walking through the world keeps my brain awake, my body alert, and my mental health in balance. One of my favorite poems is “The Last Thing” by Ada Limón, in which she talks about this very mode of being as she collects “the day’s minor urchins” to share with those she loves. Making even the smallest, everyday moments “such a big deal,” as Limón writes, is what brings me the most happiness as both a writer and a human being.
A question from Talia Lakshmi Kolluri: What tools do you use to remain uninhibited in your writing?
When I feel stuck or in a rut, I like to utilize writing prompts. I almost never follow a prompt exactly, but I find that they open me up to topics or approaches that I would not have come to on my own. Several of the poems in Solastalgia were written in response to the 2020 Poetry Advent Calendar from Two Sylvias Press, and those prompts definitely took me in unexpected (and rewarding!) directions.
What are you working on now?
In terms of poetry, I’ve been working on a few series, including poems about NASA missions and space and poems about wildlife crossings and road ecology. I’ve also been writing short stories on the same topics as Solastalgia, and working on similar material in two different genres has been very fulfilling.
What question would you like to ask the next author featured at Speaking of Marvels?
How do you approach revision? Do you have any particular techniques you use when revising your work?
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Brittney Corrigan is the author of the poetry collections Daughters, Breaking, Navigation, 40 Weeks and most recently, Solastalgia, a collection of poems about climate change, extinction, and the Anthropocene Age (JackLeg Press, 2023). Brittney was raised in Colorado and has lived in Portland, Oregon for the past three decades, where she is an alumna and employee of Reed College. She is currently at work on her first short story collection. For more information, visit http://brittneycorrigan.com/.
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