Two of the Harvest Moon co-editors Padmapani L. Perez and Renato Redentor Constantino receive the award for Best Anthology at this year’s National Book Awards, calling on writers and artists to tell more stories on the climate crisis. Photo courtesy of National Book Development Board.
MANILA, Philippines — The book Harvest Moon: Poems and Stories from the Edge of the Climate Crisis has been awarded Best Anthology in the 40th National Book Awards. Harvest Moon is the latest anthology published by the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC), under their culture platform Agam Agenda, that works in the nexus of science, policy, and arts for climate action.
The award-winning anthology brings a new vocabulary for speaking about the climate crisis, and aims to inspire hope by connecting us to our human experience on the planet.
Over 200 titles were nominated at the 40th National Book Awards to celebrate the best writers and publishers in the country. The ceremony was held at the Manila Metropolitan Theater last May 13, 2023.
International anthology on the climate crisis Harvest Moon wins Best Anthology in the 40th National Book Awards, the latest anthology from the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) under their culture platform Agam Agenda. Photos: Agam Agenda/ICSC.
Harvest Moon co-editor and Agam Agenda lead strategist Padmapani L. Perez thanked the National Book Development Board and the Manila Critics Circle “for recognizing the importance of collective, collaborative work in the time of the climate crisis.” She added, “We need writers and artists to lead the way to kinder futures.”
Edited by Padmapani L. Perez, Rehana Rossouw, Alexandra Walter, and Renato Redentor Constantino, the book is composed of 30 photographs and 30 poems, stories, and essays on the climate crisis, written in 11 languages from 24 countries spanning Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Pacific.
“The collaborative, dialogic process that brought the book about is its strongest asset, signifying how important collective work is in ‘the long work of battling the [climate] crisis.’ The use of creative restraints and prompts in shaping the contributions demonstrates how collective creation is possible, enjoyable, and necessary.”
Faye Cura, writer and founder of Filipina feminist publisher Gantala Press, on Harvest Moon
Photographers across Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and Latin America were invited to send images that showed a place or space with people or traces of humanity in them, and the book veered away from typical imagery of the environment and disasters. Then writers around the world received a list of words and phrases that they were not allowed to use in their pieces, such as ‘climate change’ and ‘global warming’.
“The intention was to discourage the use of jargon and to steer away from tired ways of describing the state we’re in. You will not encounter the words ‘carbon footprint,’ ‘mitigation’, ‘finance’, or ‘neoliberal’ in this book,” Perez has also said.
On the Harvest Moon anthology, Faye Cura, writer and founder of Filipina feminist publisher Gantala Press, said:
“The book is a cut above the rest. Each well-thought out page contributes to the arresting design, which blends beautifully with the curation of the works. The collaborative, dialogic process that brought the book about is its strongest asset, signifying how important collective work is in ‘the long work of battling the [climate] crisis.’ The use of creative restraints and prompts in shaping the contributions demonstrates how collective creation is possible, enjoyable, and necessary. The book digs deep into the modern experience of living on an earth that we fear is dying, but we also know shall outlast us. From this, fortunately, springs hope.”
This is the second time that ICSC’s work in literature, arts, and culture has been recognized with a National Book Award. Their first anthology, Agam: Filipino Narratives on Uncertainty and Climate Change, trailblazed a similar process of photographs used as creative prompts, in order to widen storytelling on the climate crisis. Edited by Regina Abuyuan and Honorio de Dios, it also won the National Book Award for Best Anthology in 2015.
The Agam Agenda is a dynamic platform that brings scientists, creatives, youth, policymakers, and activists together to engage one another and face the climate crisis together. Amplifying art and the humanities, they explore how people can tackle the climate crisis in a creative, restorative, and kind way.
Copies of Harvest Moon are available on Shopee and Lazada via Milflores Publishing, Fully Booked, Ayala Museum Shop, Mt. Cloud Bookshop (Baguio City), or Solidaridad Bookstore (Manila).
