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Ekostories

Stories and Essays by Isaac Yuen

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  • Imaginary Worlds Podcast: Miyazaki Imagines an Environment

    by Isaac Yuen

      Happy to have had an opportunity to chat about the fantastical worlds of Hayao Miyazaki on Imaginary Worlds, a podcast series hosted by Eric Molinsky on science fiction, fantasy, and other genres of speculative fiction: “Environmental stewardship has been a consistent theme throughout his work, from My Neighbor Totoro to Spirited Away to Princess Mononoke. But what exactly has he been saying all...

    April 27, 2023
    Comments 0
    Personal
  • Cascadia Field Guide

    Cascadia Field Guide: Art | Ecology | Poetry

    by Isaac Yuen

    I’m thrilled to be one of a multitude of contributors to Cascadia Field Guide, an anthology of place-based art, science, and literature now available through Mountaineer Books! Where is Cascadia? Cascadia stretches from Southeast Alaska to Northern California and from the Pacific Ocean to the Continental Divide. Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, Poetry blends art and science to celebrate this diverse yet interconnected region...

    March 4, 2023
    Comments 0
    Non-fiction, Publication
  • Giving Up On Your Dreams, Center for Humans and Nature

    by Isaac Yuen

    Happy to have teamed up once more with the Center for Humans and Nature to publish another fun essay: This one is called “Giving Up On Your Dreams.“ This piece shines a light on creatures that have taken seemingly inexplicable turns in their evolutionary histories, highlighting the fact that evolution acts without a final goal or end design in mind. Why did some birds...

    February 1, 2023
    Comments 0
    Entries, Publication
  • Pushcart Prize 47

    Pushcart Prize XLVII: Best of the Small Presses

    by Isaac Yuen

    Some personal writing news to cap off 2022: I’m honoured to have the title essay of my upcoming collection, “Utter, Earth”, published in the latest Pushcart Prize XLVII: Best of the Small Presses. The series has been published every year since 1976 and is “is the most honored literary project in America – including Highest Honors from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.” “A...

    January 6, 2023
    Comments 0
    Publication
  • Sergeant Major Fish Shoal

    A School is a Type of Shoal, wildness journal

    by Isaac Yuen

    My latest essay is part of issue 30 of wildness, a UK-based online journal featuring work from both established and emerging writers that embraces the mysteries of the self and the outside world. Come for the fish shoals, stay for the bird flocks and the many things related or distant in this piece about community, contact, and communion: “…While to shoal is to be...

    August 25, 2022
    Comment 1
    Publication
  • 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
    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, 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, Publication, 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
    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
Atlas der ungewöhnlichen Klänge: Eine Reise zu den akustischen Wundern unserer Erde

New Book Out in April 2023!

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

An essay collection in German:

"In this somewhat different travel guide, award-winning nature writers Michaela Vieser and Isaac Yuen take us to locations that are associated with special or disappearing sonic experiences. With them, we discover the hidden sounds across landscapes and imagination, learn the stories behind them, and immerse ourselves in fascinating acoustic worlds."

Available for preorder Now

Featured Ekostories

octoberama-charley-harper

Art, Animal, Essence: The Drawings of Charley Harper

Published by Isaac Yuen

I don’t remember exactly when I stopped drawing. I don’t mean the occasional doodles I do now; I mean before, when drawing was like daily bread, a childhood mainstay....

December 23, 2016
Art, Featured Ekostories
grasslands greenview Lyn Baldwin

Finding Place through Art and Science: The Field Journals of Lyn Baldwin

Published by Isaac Yuen

This piece was featured as an Editor’s Pick on Discover WordPress June 30, 2016. I began my first field journal in Belize, during my time there for biology field...

June 23, 2016
Comments 75
Art, Featured Ekostories
Wild Ideas Soyeon Kim Solutions

Wild Ideas: Let Nature Inspire Your Thinking

Published by Isaac Yuen

From the creators of You are Stardust comes Wild Ideas, the latest picture book by environmental educator Dr. Elin Kelsey and mixed-media artist Soyeon Kim. Smaller in scope but more...

August 22, 2015
Comment 1
Art, Featured Ekostories
May 2013 Styro-Buck at Ohio Falls

My Top 5 Eco-Art Tales, by the Artist at Ohio Falls

Published by Isaac Yuen

It wasn’t my intention to continue with the art theme. But as the rule of three calls and  I learn more about writing and blogging, I found myself more...

February 14, 2014
Comments 8
Art, Featured Ekostories
X-ray coloured tulips

X-Ray Photography of Nature, by Arie van’t Riet

Published by Isaac Yuen

Last week’s art by Greg Mort connected the intimate with the infinite. This week, I thought it would be interesting to explore art that delves into a world hidden...

February 7, 2014
Comments 7
Art, Featured Ekostories
Jörg-Müller The Changing Countryside - May 1953

Narrative in Art: The Changing Countryside

Published by Isaac Yuen

Over the years, I’ve come to recognize and appreciate the power of art, especially in its ability to deeply resonate with people.  Several years ago, a colleague of mine...

April 21, 2012
Comments 10
Art, Featured Ekostories
Tweets by ekostories

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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 Elsewhere

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 Games

Link and the Forest Temple Jeremy Fenske

Newfound, Journeys to HYRULE_

by Isaac Yuen

Delighted that my latest piece of creative nonfiction titled “Journeys to HYRULE_” has found the perfect home with Newfound, a nonprofit publisher and publication that explores how place shapes, identity, imagination, and understanding: “We believe that a richer experience of place—spaces human-made, natural, conceptual, or otherwise—is requisite in understanding ourselves and our world. Newfound is passionate about positively transforming how we relate to our...

October 2, 2019
Comments 2
Non-fiction, Publication, Video Games
Mother 3 Sunflower fields

MOTHER 3, A Literary Video Game

by Isaac Yuen

MOTHER 3 tells a story most would not expect a videogame to tell. Written by Shigesato Itoi, an essayist, slogan maker, copyeditor, voice actor, famed blogger, short fiction collaborator (with Haruki Murakami), Iron Chef judge and fishing fan, MOTHER 3 is a deeply intimate tale that engages on both an intellectual and emotional level. Games essayist Tim Rogers believes that it represents the closest...

January 4, 2015
Comments 13
Video Games

Pikmin 3 Photography

by Isaac Yuen

Over the last week, I’ve been spending a bit of spare time playing Pikmin 3, the newest entry in one of my favourite videogame franchises. (You might have noticed that one of custom headers of Ekostories is currently Pikmin themed)  It’s been nine long years since the last game, and I’m pleased to find that this newest title has lost none of the whimsy...

August 15, 2013
Comments 7
Video Games
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

Zelda’s Twisted Tale: Majora’s Mask

by Isaac Yuen

With the end of 2012 and the Mayan calender on people’s minds, I thought it would be topical to explore one of my favourite stories revolving around the end of the world: The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. Many consider it to be the most creative entry in the Zelda videogame franchise. Released after The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, one of...

December 8, 2012
Comments 0
Video Games

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Ekostories Quote of the Month

“History, story, spell—there is in this etymological record a fable on the relationship between the human mind and the cosmos. However much we dislike the epistemological mess, facts are not, and have never been, perfectly distinguishable from fiction. For our species, interpretation is not so much applied to reality as bound up with it. Time and space may consist of nothing more than one meaningless random event after another, but we cannot make sense of the universe except through the filter of intelligently designed plots, satisfying character arcs, and comprehensible narratives. Stories, creations of fancy, then end up remaking the world."

The Age of Stories, Ken Liu

Stories and Essays by Isaac Yuen

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