Journal of Solastalgia
Solastalgia is not about looking back to some golden past, nor is it about seeking another place as ‘home’. It is the ‘lived experience’ of the loss of the present as manifest in a feeling of dislocation; of being undermined by forces that destroy the potential for solace to be derived from the present. In short, solastalgia is a form of homesickness one gets when one is still at ‘home’. Glenn Albrecht
After the catastrophic devastation of the Eaton and Palisades fires, we are reconciling our identities with our loss of place: home, school, church, business, community.
Growing up in Los Angeles County - where traversing our diverse geographic terrain, a city of cities, and many different centers, we often forget that our identity is deeply connected to place. We may have taken for granted our connection to nature, because we’ve paved, mowed, poisoned or even decimated the land we live on. In losing our role as stewards and caretakers of the land, we have also lost part of ourselves.
Issue 1: The Journal of Solastalgia will gather stories that name and honor this grief. We are seeking contributions that reflect lived experiences of displacement —particularly from those who are part of a growing contemporary diaspora of fire survivors. Through these stories, we hope to build a new community of shared knowledge, grief, and resilience.
Urban Ecology Conservatory Journal Issue 1: Solastalgia Call for Sumbissions
Nonfiction reflections, essays, observations of the natural world, poems and art in the aftermath of the Eaton fire.
2,500 max word count
Deadline: September 1, 2025
Topics to consider
How our community came together in the aftermath, and how it did not.
Architecture and climate: Are we rebuilding? If so, how are we rebuilding?
What is an acceptable level of risk or toxicity? How do we live with that risk?
Rituals and practices of grief or hope: Do you have them? Do you need them?
Children’s stories of the fire and the aftermath.
