brianna cunliffe
Weaving words for a just future. Writing across disciplines devoted to reciprocity, wonder, and interreliance. Maine-based, Carolina-rooted, finding the poetics of a career in climate resilience. Say hello here.
recent writing
"zeitgeist, apple core" in Exist Otherwise
"hatchery hymnal" & "category is: kraken" in Revolute
"whittler's lineage", "nativity with peaches", and "little goddamn princess" in Screen Door Review
"lazy safety" and "sweetness infests me while wayfinding" in Rising Action Review
"quebec again" in Rough Cut Press
"in which i forgive brooklyn for taking my lover away" in Vagabond City
"birds of paradise" in Lucent Dreaming
Prose:"Sweetwater, Poison", (creative nonfiction) in Reckoning Magazine (creative writing for environmental justice)"As Light, Unraveling", (fiction) in Sans Press' INTO CHAOS anthology"Burrower's Prayer", (fiction) in Blind Corner Magazine"A Luminous Endeavor": Commencement Address for the Bowdoin College Class of 2022Journalism:Climate & Community: Maine Voices for Action (Weekly Solutions-Focused Short Feature distributed through WERU.org, Maine's Community Radio Station- subscribe on Spotify!)"Transitions and transformation on Mount Desert Island" &
"Mapping MDI's Climate Future", Columns in the Working Waterfront"Disaster was just the beginning of my climate story", (talk and essay presented through the Schoodic Institute)
Ongoing Work
I write and work towards communities enacting an energy transition that is also a revolution, a co-created response to the climate crisis that can transform our ability to thrive, re-ground us in a sense of place and return us to being in relationship. In my 'day job', that looks like facilitating community visioning and participatory planning processes and crafting narratives that bring stakeholders together and build common cause. In my writing, it takes the form of a few ongoing projects I hope to share soon.
Refrains from the Precipice (my debut poetry collection, currently out for consideration)
Novel projects in the Adult and YA Speculative Fiction spaces
A MA Thesis/Capstone focused on community capacity to build resilience through energy sovereignty, in progress at the University Centre of the Westfjords
The Community Energy Futures Workshop Series and Toolkit, created through a National Environmental Leadership Fellowship with the Rachel Carson Council
