Kaitlyn Teer’s project for the 2023 Jack Straw Writers Program is a non-fiction book about the love, fears, and contradictions of mothering in a climate crisis and how mothering can be a force for social change. In her conversation with curator Priscilla Long, she talks about how her conversations with her daughter have shaped her thinking, the mentors in her life, and her thoughts on the idea of hope in a time of environmental degradation. “I think that’s the task of writers, in both fiction and in non-fiction. To help shape our imaginations for what could be. And I think if we’re going to do it, we first have to imagine it.”

Music by Bryan Smith, produced through the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.