NONFICTION
NEW WORLD COMING
Frontline Voices on Pandemics, Uprisings, and Climate Crisis
edited by ALASTAIR LEE BITSÓÍ and BROOKE LARSEN
"New World Coming tells powerful stories of loss and difficulty plus messages of hope and promise for all as we seek a healing future for the earth and each other."
—REGINA LOPEZ WHITESKUNK (Ute Mountain Ute), contributor to Edge of Morning: Native Voices Speak for the Bears Ears
Cover art by Mariella Mendoza
New World Coming documents this distinct moment in history through personal narratives and intergenerational imaginings of a just, healthy, and equitable future. Writers reflect on what movements for justice and liberation can learn from the response to COVID-19, uprisings for Black lives, and climate crisis, inspiring the change we need to survive and thrive. These powerful narratives cultivate and strengthen our imaginations for a regenerative future.
November 2021 | Nonfiction | $19.95 | 978-1-948814-53-9 | Trade Paper | 288 pp
CONTRIBUTORS
Franque Bains | Mishka Banuri | Arlyssa Becenti | Jade Begay | Tara Benally
Kern Collymore | Nellie Jo David | Sunny Dooley | Ashley Finley | Irene Franco Rubio Brinley Froelich | Lilian Hill | Uyen Hoang | Linda Hogan | Nicole Horseherder
Kinsale Hueston | Psarah Johnson | Melissa-Malcolm King | Lyrica Jensen Maldonado Mariella Mendoza | Esther Meroño Baro | Denae Shanidiin | Chip Thomas | Laura Tohe John Tveten | Braidan Weeks | Ahjani Yepa
ABOUT THE EDITORS
ALASTAIR LEE BITSÓÍ (Diné) is a public health and environmental writer from the Navajo Nation. He is an award-winning news reporter for the Navajo Times and served as communications director for the Indigenous-led land conservation nonprofit Utah Diné Bikéyah, which continues advocacy for protection and restoration of Bears Ears National Monument. His newly launched consulting business, Near the Water Communications and Media Group, provides public health messaging services for organizations. He holds a master’s degree in public health from New York University College of Global Public Health and is an alumnus of Gonzaga University.
BROOKE LARSEN is a writer, community organizer, and narrative strategist. She calls Salt Lake City home, ancestral land of the Goshute, Shoshone, and Ute people. She is a recipient of the High Country News Bell Prize for emerging writers. Larsen has spent the past decade—most of her adult life—organizing with the climate justice movement. She cofounded Uplift, a youth-led organization for climate justice in the Southwest, and was a youth delegate to the UN Climate Change Conference in 2016 with SustainUS. As a descendent of Mormon settlers who colonized so-called Utah, Larsen focuses much of her organizing on wealth redistribution, truth telling, and white accountability. Story listening is also a central part of her work, including two long distance story listening tours by bike. Larsen has an MA in Environmental Humanities from the University of Utah and a BA in environmental policy from Colorado College.
PRAISE FOR NEW WORLD COMING
“Set against the backdrop that is the anguish of bearing witness, New World Coming is showing us how to recognize each other again. Within these pages I felt the type of solace that can only be found through those who know how to hold and tend to the act of storytelling. Stories on survival, stories on strength. Stories that are showing us
the way forward.”
—KAILEA FREDERICK, climate justice organizer, NDN Collective
“A lovingly crafted tribute to the Southwest, with poetry and prose from dedicated community members reflecting on what it takes to tend liberation. With heartfelt accounts of lived experiences of the pandemic, systemic racism, and the climate crisis, this book weaves together the many people of the region passionate to keep the momentum for justice alive. The stories shared are heartfelt, intimate, and paint a beautiful picture of the work to honor the Glimmering World. Within these pages are insights and perspectives on what it takes to be in this trying time. An inspiring read for anyone looking for a case study of a resilient, place-based movement reverent for the land and the Indigenous histories and cosmologies embedded in place.”
—ORION CAMERO, COP25 delegation leader, SustainUS
"The strength of New World Coming is in how it unites diverse writers—Black, Native American, disabled, LGBTQ+—as they explore the impacts of COVID-19, race and climate on their communities."
—SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
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