November 13, 2026
Imminent Domains: Reckoning with the Anthropocene, by Alessandra Naccarato
“Here’s what I believe in: agape—that universal, unconditional love—love that transcends and persists. Some use this word to describe God, but I would use it for the meadow. Black-eyed Susan, butterfly weed: how we are loved by thee. Wild bergamot, catchfly, the bees crowding their legs with pollen. What else could it mean? / This is the magic: You plant the seeds, and it’s not a symbol. You plant the actual seeds, and you find out what grows.”
While I didn’t necessarily want to be “reckoning with the Anthropocene,” Alessandra Naccarato won me over with, “That’s the funny, forgivable thing about the earth. It’s not only loss that’s imminent: it’s creation.” Imminent Domains is a collection of vivid, learned essays about nature, and the universe, and the nature of the universe, our own corner of it in particular, which Naccarato has explored aplenty, these essays dispatches from various corners and organized by elements. She writes about deforestation and Lyme disease (“an illness of relationship, disease formed into the place where we meet); wolves and rewilding; a reflection of a game from her childhood, Endangered Species, by which she formed a connection to the black-footed ferret. About mining and extraction (where do your healing crystals come from?). Floods, seas, mermaids, and bees, honey from hives in the heart of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. And so so much more.
Gorgeously lyrical, intimate and personal, and ever tied to all things universal, these essays are moving and transportive, stories of resilience and survival, all the wondrous possibilities. To almost every question, the answer comes down to love.
