An Interview with Author Maggie Dewane

Haiku and Hope: 50 States of Climate Change is a poetic journey through the landscapes of the United States, combining nature, activism, and reflection. Each state’s haiku highlights environmental challenges, prompting readers to contemplate the effects of climate change. This collection celebrates America's natural beauty while advocating for its preservation.

Hope and Haiku: 50 States of Climate Change is a unique book in the sense that you are writing about each of the 50 states after visiting them. Can you tell us a little bit about your travels and how the book came to be? 

By my mid-20s, I think I’d visited around 25 or more states. Then I moved to Washington, DC—our nation’s capital and the meeting place of all states—and I loved being able to connect with people from remote places and far off towns because I knew of their hometowns or unique things about their state. So it became a sense of community and curiosity that inspired me to keep traveling. I loved getting to know America, this place of opportunity and dreams, and the richness of its people. Running parallel to that curiosity is that I'm happiest in nature, so traveling far and wide for an outdoor adventure rejuvenates me and excites my soul. There's too much to see to sit still!  

Fast forward a few years and a few states, and the prospect of reaching all 50 was within grasp. It turned into an item to tick off my bucket list in a leisurely fashion, but then I thought, if I’m lucky enough to experience all 50 states firsthand, I should share that fortune with other people in a way that could do some good. Because I've been working in the climate and environmental action space for most of my career, an idea emerged to use the outdoor adventures as a way to inspire climate action. This is how the book was born. 

Each of the 50 states gets a haiku poem that reflects the current landscape of the place, and then a second that imagines how it will continue to change as it contends with the effects of climate change. How did you come up with this idea? Was it cathartic or helpful for you? And how did you tap into that “future state?” 

I spend a lot of my time thinking about new ways to reach people about the seriousness of climate change. It’s both the biggest threat to the way we exist and it’s exceptionally complicated to communicate. So demystifying it is essential so that we can move forward and address it.  

Poetry is extremely cathartic for me, so as I explored my feelings and observations of states through my travels, it occurred to me that all of this beauty was at risk if we don’t act. Because I was using haiku to capture my travel observations, it seemed perfectly complementary and succinct to juxtapose those with another haiku of the state changed. With the brevity of a haiku, you can keep a reader’s interest while also piquing their curiosity. And that’s where the second half of this book comes in—it’s the longer form exploration of the state changed, should the reader want to know more. A lot of research went into the “future state,” and I wanted these poems to consider the lives of people—real people—as their surroundings change, as well as serve as a foreboding premonition. 

Haiku is an unrhymed poetic form of 17 syllables arranged in three lines consisting of five, seven, and then five syllables. It first emerged in 17th Japan. How did you decide to use Haiku and why? 

I find haiku so delightful. They can tell an entire story or capture rich emotion in just 17 syllables. Pair that with the abbreviated attention spans of audiences in today’s digital age, and I thought it could be a perfect recipe to serve up both appreciation of our natural world, as well as climate change and its impacts. While that brevity can keep attention, it can also pique curiosity and leave room for interpretation, which will hopefully encourage readers to do their own research to learn more. 

Haiku is also a great entry point to poetry. Because it requires a specific formula that doesn’t demand rhyme, it’s accessible to anyone interested in exploring this medium of creative expression. So if someone says, “I can’t write poetry, I’m not that creative,” haiku is there to say, “Sure you can. Here’s exactly what you gotta do.” 

So much of climate literature is nonfiction, which does make sense, however there’s not much poetry. Why do you think it’s important that there is more poetry about climate change and climate grief? What is your hope for this book? 

Climate change is very technical, complicated, and threatening, making it a perfectly overwhelming topic that most people don’t want to touch with a six-foot pole. Poetry is a very natural outlet for intense emotions, grief among them. So, using poetry to convey both the nature of climate change, as well as the grief or anxiety associated with it, can make it a little less menacing. When it becomes more palatable, we feel more empowered to do something about it and join the ranks of problem solvers and advocates.  

My hope is this book will show readers the beautiful places we call home, the creatures that live there, and even shed light on our own lives. There is playful imagery and cause for hope throughout, and it even ends with a personal action plan. It’s not a sad book, though it does illustrate what’s at stake if we don’t act, and hopefully contains enough to stir emotion and reach readers’ hearts. While I claim to be really practical and logical, I’m deeply sensitive at my core and often lead with hope in my heart. Hope has the power to change the world, sometimes more than logic and reason. If this book can deliver that to readers, then I’ll consider it a grand success. 

Haiku and Hope: 50 States of Climate Change

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