We invite you to attend the launch of our twenty-first issue.
Dark Mountain: Issue 21 takes its inspiration from the theme of ‘confluence’. The image of ‘watersmeet’, of two streams merging into one, has long had sacred connotations, as shown by the votive offerings left at the point where rivers meet. This book goes beyond watery metaphors to explore confluence in its complexity: both life-affirming and death-bringing, nourishing and troubling, creative and destructive.
Increasingly, the times we live in feel like a confluence of catastrophes: climate, ecological, political, cultural and existential. ‘Collapse’, as poet Sophie Strand notes, ‘is when things that shouldn’t be connected merge.’ From modern-day lycanthropy tales – inter-species minglings between human and animal – to the melting, freezing waters of the Antarctic Convergence; from intergenerational trauma to the disastrous coming-together of nuclear meltdown; from the collapsing ‘Doomsday Glacier’ to swirling microbial ecosystems deep within the human body; the contributions of the 60 writers and artists in this book join to make new patterns in this meeting of the waters.
This issue is a collaboration between Dark Mountain and saltfront, the environmental humanities journal based in Salt Lake City, Utah and dedicated to a radically new type of ecological storytelling.
To celebrate the book’s publication, we invite you to join us for an online launch on Thursday 21st April starting at 19:30 BST. The event will include an introduction from the editors, readings from contributors, a presentation to the book’s artwork and time at the end for questions and conversation.
Tickets are limited so you’ll need to register to ensure a place – just follow this link. We hope to see you there!