Ice melt; sea level rise; catastrophic weather; flooding; drought; fire; infestation; species extinction and adaptation; water shortage and contamination; intensified social inequity, migration and cultural collapse. These are but some of the changes that are not only predicted for climate changing futures, but already part of our lives in Canada. Although these transformations are global and dramatic, they are also experienced locally and particularly by people who are struggling to understand the impacts of climate change on their daily lives.
Rising Tides is a collection of short fiction, creative non-fiction, memoir and poetry addressing the past, present and future of climate change. Bringing stories about climate change--both catastrophic and subtle--closer to home, this new anthology inspires reflection, understanding, conversation and action. With more than forty purposefully written pieces, Rising Tides emphasizes the need for intimate stories and thoughtful attention, and also for a view of climate justice that is grounded in ongoing histories of colonialism and other forms of environmental and social devastation.These stories parallel the critical issues facing the planet, and imagine equitable responses for all Canadians, moving beyond denial and apocalypse and toward shared meaning and action.
Contributors to the anthology include established writers, climate change experts from different backgrounds and front-line activists: Carleigh Baker, Stephen Collis, Ashlee Cunsolo, Ann Eriksson, Rosemary Georgeson, Hiromi Goto, Laurie D. Graham, David Huebert, Sonnet L'Abbe, Timothy Leduc, Christine Lowther, Kyo Maclear, Emily McGiffin, Deborah McGregor, Kevin Phillip Paul, Richard Pickard, Holly Schofield, Betsy Warland, Evelyn White, Rita Wong and many more.

Cate Sandilands' profile page

Catriona Sandilands is a professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University. She is a fellow of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, a former Canada Research Chair and past president of both the Association for Literature, Environment and Culture in Canada and the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (US). Cate is internationally known for her work in the environmental humanities, including three (sole and co-authored) books and over eighty scholarly and popular articles, essays and stories. In addition to Rising Tides, she is working on a book about plants and environmental philosophy (Cultivating Feminism) and a memoir about her journey to write a book about Jane Rule (The Jane Book). Cate lives and writes in Toronto, ON, and on Galiano Island, BC.

“The contributors are painstaking and skilled wordsmiths. Throughout, they draw connections between personal lived experience and memory, and broader and structural issues. Some of the contributions are metaphorical, allegorical and evocative; others more directly name the social constructs that are jeopardizing our existence, reminiscent of the clarion call of a political manifesto.”

—Robert Hackett, rabble.ca

“[A] timely book […] there’s a sense of conversation, of talking and sharing ideas, memories, strategies, and the result is a compelling field-guide to ways we might proceed as local and global citizens.”

—Theresa Kishkan, The Ormsby Review

[Rising Tides] takes a more explicitly political slant and includes a range of perspectives from Indigenous writers, including Zoe Todd’s gorgeous, lyrical reflection on watching the tides. While many of the writers work within academia, their writing here is accessible, open-hearted, and personal. […] In diverse ways, many of these contributors are probing this issue: how much hurt—how much climate change reality—are we capable of admitting into consciousness? Kyo Maclear’s “Love and Lifeboating”—an outstanding essay about dying and grief by one of Canada’s best writers—is, alone, worth the price of this collection. These are works to savour and treasure.”

—Canadian Literature