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Ekostories

Stories and Essays by Isaac Yuen

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  • hermit crab

    A Hearth is a Kind of Home, Pleiades: Literature in Context

    by Isaac Yuen

    Happy to have another nature essay published, this time in the spring 2022 issue of Pleiades, “a literary biannual featuring poetry, fiction, essays, and reviews by authors from around the world.” This issue features a special folio of Latinx LGBTQIA+ Poets, so be sure to check it out! Titled “A Hearth is a Kind of Home,” my latest piece is a romp around the...

    June 1, 2022
    Comment 1
    Non-fiction, Publication
  • The Perfect Party Guest, Center for Humans and Nature

    by Isaac Yuen

    Delighted to share that I have an essay published by the Center for Humans and Nature, “a nonprofit organization, publisher, forum, and place to explore, connect, and nurture our understandings of and responsibilities to the natural world.” Titled “The Perfect Party Guest,” the piece makes the case of considering certain creatures to your next gathering/shindig, ones that are perhaps not on everyone’s radar. Here’s...

    April 27, 2022
    Comment 1
    Entries, Non-fiction, Publication
  • Crafting with Ursula: Writing Nature and Nature Writing

    by Isaac Yuen

    I’m very excited to share a recent conversation I had with David Naimon, host of Between the Covers. A bit about the show: Between the Covers , a literary radio show and podcast hosted by David Naimon, is brought to you by Tin House. These long-form in-depth conversations have been singled out by the Guardian, Book Riot, the Financial Times, and BuzzFeed as one of the most notable book...

    March 14, 2022
    Comments 4
    Earthsea, Non-fiction, Personal, Short Stories
  • Clouds in Finland

    Utter, Earth – AGNI Magazine

    by Isaac Yuen

    Thrilled to cap off the year with a few pieces of publication news! My latest essay titled “Utter, Earth” has been published in issue 94 of AGNI Magazine, a literary journal based out of Boston University. (Update: The piece has been selected to be part of Pushcart Prize XLVII: Best of the Small Presses 2023—a tremendous honour!) A bit about the issue: “Utter, Earth”...

    December 21, 2021
    Comments 2
    Non-fiction, Publication
  • Lesser Short Nosed Fruit Bat Newborn

    Yes, You can Leave The Hospital Without Naming Your Baby

    by Isaac Yuen

    Some publication news: I’m super honoured to have a piece of creative nonfiction up at the latest issue of The Willowherb Review, a fantastic UK-based publication focused on providing a platform for nature writing from writers of colour. Some of you might recall that I also had another piece titled El Lugar de Los Sueños in Willowherb last year. Instead of another personal meditation, I...

    September 1, 2021
    Comments 2
    Non-fiction, Publication
  • spirited-away-dreamscape

    The Ecological Imagination of Hayao Miyazaki, Orion Magazine

    by Isaac Yuen

    It’s not every day that you get to work on a dream project with a dream publication. I’m excited to share that I have a new piece up online at Orion magazine, exploring the ecological imagination of Hayao Miyazaki. Where the word for forest is silence A tree and troll to watch over me Carrying on through a wayward world Reading the wind, mending...

    March 12, 2021
    Comments 7
    Movies, Personal, Publication
  • Southern White Rhino

    Second Best is Best, Gulf Coast Online

    by Isaac Yuen

    I’m particularly excited to announce that a new essay published online over at Gulf Coast, a journal co-founded by one of my favourite writers, Donald Barthelme. “Second Best is Best” is one in a collection I’m working on where I try to cram as many creatures and entities into a single piece of prose as possible and still have it be semi-coherent. Inspired by...

    February 15, 2021
    Comment 1
    Non-fiction, Publication
  • Tiny Molecules: One Summer, by Iceland

    by Isaac Yuen

    One more piece of news to cap off the year: I’m delighted to have found a home for a new story in the winter issue of Tiny Molecules, an online quarterly literary magazine of small fiction. “One Summer, in Iceland” features the titular island of fire and ice as protagonist, or so it seems: “Yesterday for the first time this spring the rains died...

    December 21, 2020
    Comment 1
    Fiction, Publication, Short Stories
  • Flash Fiction Magazine, Last Light

    by Isaac Yuen

    I have a new piece of flash fiction (stories that are less than 1,000 words) over at Flash Fiction Magazine. “Last Light” uses the concept of lightspeed as a means to convey the time and distance necessary for healing: It’s been a thousand days since the sun died. Our star. My heart. It takes last light eight minutes to kiss the brow of the...

    December 12, 2020
    Comments 0
    Fiction, Publication, Short Stories
  • Isla San Francisquito

    The Willowherb Review: El Lugar de Los Sueños

    by Isaac Yuen

    I’m pleased to have a new essay out in the latest issue of The Willowherb Review, a publication celebrating nature writing from emerging and established writers of colour: “Why ‘Willowherb’? Chamaenerion angustifolium, commonly known as rosebay willowherb or fireweed, is a plant that thrives on disturbed ground. Its seeds do well when transported to new and difficult terrain, so some—not us—may call it a weed.” ...

    August 26, 2020
    Comments 2
    Non-fiction, Publication

Ekostories Quote of the Month

“We’ve told a story of the coming of a time of darkness. The coming of calamity of shadow and fire and ruin. Why do we tell stories? To try to make sense of a world that can be terrifying and enormous... I don’t know that your story will long be known. I don’t know who will remain to tell it. But it did happen. And it did matter. And though calamity is here, because of you, it will not be here forever."

Brennan Lee Mulligan
Hawaiian Island Topography Large

Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Never Set Foot On and Never Will

Published by Isaac Yuen

The first place I ever felt at home in was on an island. My grandparents lived on Cheung Chau, an island ten kilometers southwest of Hong Kong. Literally translated as...

August 5, 2016
Comments 3
Featured Ekostories, Non-fiction
Great Horsetail_Luc_Viatour

More Than Ferns: Oliver Sacks’ Oaxaca Journal

Published by Isaac Yuen

When I finished the preface to Oliver Sacks’ Oaxaca Journal and found that the late neurologist and author shared my love for natural history travelogues, I knew I was in...

May 30, 2016
Comments 5
Featured Ekostories, Non-fiction
Elephant eye up close

Bearing Witness: The Animal Dialogues by Craig Childs

Published by Isaac Yuen

It began with pronghorns. Growing up obsessed with creature comparisons, the main allure of the antelope was its cheetah-esque speed, evolved to evade the North American version of that...

October 13, 2015
Comments 3
Featured Ekostories, Non-fiction
Bold Peak Chugach Mountains Alaska

Nature and Music: The Work of John Luther Adams

Published by Isaac Yuen

I am probably one of the few who looks forward to my commute. Not because I get on far enough away to grab a seat on the train, or that...

October 23, 2014
Comments 2
Art, Featured Ekostories
Burtynsky's Manufactured Landscapes Orange River Plate 14

Manufactured Landscapes: A meditation on man-made spaces

Published by Isaac Yuen

I don’t recall where I first came across the work of Edward Burtynsky; it could have been at the library, the bookstore, or one of those coffee shops with...

October 10, 2013
Comments 25
Art, Featured Ekostories
thatgamecompany flower

Interactive Storytelling: Thatgamecompany’s Flower

Published by Isaac Yuen

As a fan of video games ever since I was introduced to Pac-Man and Dig Dug by my uncle at the age of three, it pains me to admit...

March 30, 2012
Comments 8
Featured Ekostories, Video Games

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Art and environment Biology Change Culture Earthsea eastern philosophy Ecology Environment Environmental Art Environmentalism Essay Ethics Hayao Miyazaki Hope Imagination manga Nature nature culture nature writing Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind Orion (magazine) Resilience Science Fiction Slider Stories Storytelling Sustainability Ursula K. Le Guin WPLongform Writing

Ekostories on Movies

spirited-away-dreamscape

The Ecological Imagination of Hayao Miyazaki, Orion Magazine

by Isaac Yuen

It’s not every day that you get to work on a dream project with a dream publication. I’m excited to share that I have a new piece up online at Orion magazine, exploring the ecological imagination of Hayao Miyazaki. Where the word for forest is silence A tree and troll to watch over me Carrying on through a wayward world Reading the wind, mending the earth An introduction to the work of the venerated Japanese animator and filmmaker (who happened to turn 80 this year), the piece is also a retrospective on four movies dearest to my heart: Princess Mononoke, My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away, and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Miyazaki tales were major sources of inspiration for me starting Ekostories—you can read everything I’ve written over the years in the archives HERE. And when you’re done, don’t forget to check out the rest of Orion’s latest issue (and hopefully subscribe!) It’s seriously fantastic both in terms of production value and in-depth content that explores the connections between people and nature....

March 12, 2021
Comments 7
Movies, Personal, Publication

Ekostories in Literature

marcovaldo-artwork

Italo Calvino’s Marcovaldo: Seasons in the City

by Isaac Yuen

Bedridden with the flu on a recent writing retreat, I had resigned myself to focus on recovery rather than to get any writing done. I had not expected, between the coughing fits and the fever chills, to find new inspiration from a familiar source. But there it was, sitting eye-level on the third shelf of a corner bookcase at a stranger’s vacation rental, all...

February 1, 2017
Comments 4
Fiction, Literature, Short Stories
Hong Kong Cityscape

Place and Memory: Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities

by Isaac Yuen

I’m not sure how to describe Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities. It isn’t traditional fiction on a structural level, having no story arc or a defined ending. Nor is it conventional fantasy, doing away with the worlds it creates almost as soon as it forms them. Even the broadest definitions of historical fiction and magical realism don’t quite fit, as Calvino blends real and imagined details...

June 21, 2015
Comments 9
Literature

Look Up: Antoine De Saint-Exupéry’s Wind, Sand and Stars

by Isaac Yuen

Unlike millions around the world, my first encounter with the works of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry did not involve La Petit Prince; I am ashamed to admit that I have not yet read his most famous work. What I have read, and what continues to stay with me, was the man’s memoir and the inspiration for what is arguably one of the most beloved children’s stories in history. Winner...

January 20, 2015
Comments 8
Literature, Non-fiction
Mars 2099 ESO J Girard

The Dispossessed: On Time and Meaning

by Isaac Yuen

“You are our history. We are perhaps your future. I want to learn, not ignore. It is the reason I came. We must know each other. We are not primitive men. Our morality is no longer tribal, it cannot be. Such ignorance is a wrong, from which wrong will arise. So I come to learn.” – The Dispossessed, p. 75 Welcome to the final...

August 15, 2014
Comments 5
Literature

Top Posts & Pages

  • Place and Memory: Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities
    Place and Memory: Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender - Balance and Moral Courage
    Avatar: The Last Airbender - Balance and Moral Courage
  • Nausicaä Vol. 1: The Valley of the Wind
    Nausicaä Vol. 1: The Valley of the Wind
  • Escape to Happiness and Insanity: Gilliam's Brazil
    Escape to Happiness and Insanity: Gilliam's Brazil
  • Ekostories Front Page
    Ekostories Front Page
  • Isaac's Bio
    Isaac's Bio
  • Know Thyself: A Wizard of Earthsea
    Know Thyself: A Wizard of Earthsea
  • Essays
    Essays
  • Italo Calvino’s Marcovaldo: Seasons in the City
    Italo Calvino’s Marcovaldo: Seasons in the City
  • A Hearth is a Kind of Home, Pleiades: Literature in Context
    A Hearth is a Kind of Home, Pleiades: Literature in Context

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UPCOMING BOOKS

Utter, Earth

A debut collection exploring nature & culture through wordplay & earthplay

coming 2023

The Sound Atlas: A Guide to Strange Sounds Across Landscapes and Imagination

An essay collection in German co-authored with Michaela Vieser

coming 2023

Stories and Essays by Isaac Yuen

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