Poetry and fiction in and about cities is nothing new. But around the world cities are becoming more numerous and rapidly evolvingāgrowing larger and faster than ever before, each at once remaining unique and revealing similarities, all both a challenge and a promise to the future of our societies and environment. In these dualities we seek a nature of cities and communities that are resilient, livable, sustainable, and just.
Poets and fiction writers are striving to reveal the invisible infrastructure of their communities, generating new works out of their activism and everyday practice. They are reaching out to practitioners in other disciplines, from architecture to ecology, to expand vocabularies and explore new directions. The Nature of Cities is welcoming writers in an intentionally broad conversation about cities, asking them to illuminate the city they are in. It is a chance for all of us to remember and imagine our city.
The Nature of Cities is curating a series of poems and fiction from around the world on themes of cities: communities, infrastructure, open space, and nature. It is a series about the cities of our dreams: resilient, sustainable, livable, and just. One example of this approach can be seen in Stories of the Nature of Cities, our short fiction contest series. Stories from that project, plus other fiction, poetry, and imaginative essays will appear here.
