ARTICLE

ABSTRACT (from Australian Journal of Environmental Education, March 2025)

Wild pedagogies invites educators to engage with more-than-humans as co-teachers and co-researchers. In collaborating with city grass, this paper blends rhizomatic thinking, literary ecocriticism, and the rewilding of pedagogy within severely constrained circumstances. Citing cognitive, emotional, and physical benefits of engaging with free and flourishing nature, this research asks: How can the severe constraints of particular sociopolitical circumstances and disciplines, such as postsecondary literature courses, be creatively encountered to support engagement with flourishing more-than-human kin? It also asks: What would grass do? This paper walks readers through many barriers faced by city college humanities courses and suggests practical, creative work-arounds that, while focused on college literature classes, can be adapted to educators in diverse disciplines and contexts. Because we need playful thinking to think creatively — even on the brink of catastrophes — this paper is written as a choose-your-own adventure game.

Thank you to Avantika and Barbara at the Animals & Us: Voices for a New Paradigm Podcast for the wonderful conversation—just aired today, Nov. 1st, 2024. Listen here: https://www.animalsanduspodcast.com/episodes/episode/78600482/the-role-of-love-in-intuitive-interspecies-communication-with-dr-estella-kuchta

New paper, co-authored with Sean Blenkinsop, published in the Canadian Journal of Environmental Education. From the abstract:

This exploratory paper intends to spark conversation and further investigation into the relational/ecological possibilities of English. English has ecological, colonial, and relational troubles baked into both its structure and usage—issues rarely addressed in environmental education. However, these problematics might be mitigated with playful linguistic adjustments and careful assessments of embedded cultural assumptions.

Ecologizing Education: Nature-Centered Teaching for Cultural Change has been published! For reviews and information about this book, co-authored with Sean Blenkinsop, click here. Thank you to the hardworking team at Cornell University Press for supporting this labour of love.

Join me and a dozen talented Langara faculty members and students for *live* creative writing reading event at Langara this Tuesday, November 27th in L224, starting at 7pm. More info and list of readers here: https://langara.ca/departments/english/events/strangers-on-a-train.html

With great appreciation to the editors at The Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education, I’m happy to report that my article, “Knowing the unknowable: Visions of troubled lands,” has now been published. Special gratitude to the incredibly astute, supportive, and insightful (and anonymous) peer reviewer!

My article, “The Epistemologies of Love: Relearning the Love of Land,” has now been published in the anthology, Pedagogy in the Anthropocene. Thank you to Michael Paulsen, jan jagodzinski, and Shé M. Hawke for their wonderful work!

Here is a selection of my abstract:
Love binds people to land and offers a ‘between’ space, where ecologically responsible and relationally attuned knowledges can emerge. Yet within the dominant North American culture, love for the natural world regularly leads to ostracism, ridicule, and violence. Mainstream culture does not allow for the love of rivers, old growth forests, owls, etc. when that love comes at the expense of capitalist goals. In the Americas, settler culture continues to work to destroy the love and belonging that ties Indigenous people to their ancestral land. Mainstream culture interprets this love as unnatural, unreal, and threatening. In addition to tragic ecological and humanitarian injustices, this view limits the possibilities for an urgently needed ontological shift within Western culture and the ensuing epistemological transformation.

I’m honoured that my short story, “The Pool Light,” won 2nd place in the FBCW Fiction Contest and will be forthcoming in the WordWorks Anthology. Thank you to the judge, KT Wagner, for these thoughtful comments:

The Runner Up: The Pool Light by Estella Kuchta

"A haunting story. The narrator voice in The Pool Light is pitch perfect. The child's perspective is absorbing and tragic, while at the same time wonderous and magical. A tricky balance to achieve, and the author has done it masterfully. The difficult subject matter isn't shied away from, and the child's interpretation is heartbreakingly believable."

-- Judge KT Wagner

https://www.bcwriters.ca/contest-winners-2021?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fbcw_writeon_announcing_our_contest_winners_and_runner_ups&utm_term=2022-01-21

“We heal through stories. While my writing has often been a personal healing journey, ultimately, I hope it brings comfort, insight, illumination, and healing to others.”

Read the full interview in The Miramichi Reader here!

Joseph Planta and I talk about secrets, cowboys, untold histories, and the nature of Canadian love stories on The Commentary

Do romance novels promote or undermine love in the real world? My new article, “Imagining love: Teen romance novels and American teen relational capacity” examines the neurobiology of reading and imagination and the thematic patterns of three novels to address this question. Here is the abstract: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-45996-3_44

I’m honoured to have Stan Rushworth (citizen of Chiricahua Apache Nation) write this feedback for my novel:

“This beautiful and poetic story is a quick wind moving through the imagination. It arises out of the memory and dream of the obligations to life in right relationship. Its insights both color and cut through the layers of forgetting brought upon this continent, the forgetting brought by control of women, water, land and sky, all the doorways to life. Its clear and vivid images of people moving in the surrounding world of Nature reveal the layers of that obsession, and at the same time they lead the way to the necessity of remembering a better, truer way to be. The brilliant young mother at the heart of the story, the storyteller herself, gives testimony to the insistence and courage it takes to find and live a life of dignity, trust, and respect. In this, she keeps the dream alive of what it means to be truly human, which is to love.”

Stan Rushworth is the author of three books: Diaspora’s Children (2020); Going to Water (2013); and Sam Woods (1993). His fourth book, an anthology of Indigenous voices, is in the making. For more information about Stan, check out his Vimeo interview here: https://vimeo.com/399323963

In the U.S.:

1. Amazon.com https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Daydreamer-Estella-Kuchta/dp/1941614329/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

2. Elm Books: https://www.elm-books.com/daydreamer_p/n-02.htm

In Canada:

1. Books & Company Quesnel: https://bookmanager.com/1170392/?searchtype=keyword&qs=finding+the+daydreamer&q=h.tviewer&using_sb=status&qsb=keyword

2. Chapters/Indigo Online: https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/finding-the-daydreamer/9781941614327-item.html?ikwid=finding+the+daydreamer&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=0#algoliaQueryId=a8bdbe86ae71bd294b8c6b865d97e159

3. Amazon.ca: *Prices have been varying* https://www.amazon.ca/Finding-Daydreamer-Estella-Kuchta/dp/1941614329/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

In Vancouver:

1. Canterbury Tales Bookstore: http://www.canterburytales.ca

2. Book Warehouse (on Broadway) https://www.bookwarehouse.ca/?searchtype=keyword&qs=finding+the+daydreamer&q=h.tviewer&using_sb=status&qsb=keyword

3. UBC Online Bookstore https://shop.bookstore.ubc.ca/p-175826-finding-the-daydreamer.aspx

Other Countries:

1. Elm Books: https://www.elm-books.com/daydreamer_p/n-02.htm

Join me and other Langara College writers for a literary reading Tuesday, January 26th at 7:00pm (pacific standard time). I’ll be reading a chapter from my novel. The event is open to the public.

Join the Facebook event for updates.

Zoom link: https://langara.zoom.us/j/69639200271 Meeting ID: 696 3920 0271

Featuring readings by:

• Andrea Actis (Grey All Over)

• Estella Kuchta (Finding the Daydreamer)

• Noor Fadel (Langara student)

Looking to order Finding the Daydreamer from outside North America? These links may be helpful!

In China https://item.jd.com/10021584288880.html

In Australia https://www.booktopia.com.au/finding-the-daydreamer-estella-kuchta/book/9781941614327.html

in the Netherlands https://www.bol.com/nl/f/finding-the-daydreamer/9300000004903680/

In the UK https://www.whsmith.co.uk/products/finding-the-daydreamer/estella-kuchta/paperback/9781941614327.html

In Sweden https://www.adlibris.com/fi/kirja/finding-the-daydreamer-9781941614327

In Taiwan https://www.books.com.tw/products/F017032866?loc=P_br_r0vq68ygz_D_2aabd0_B_1

Wondering what “ecologizing education” is? Joshua Bennett asks all the right questions on this interview with my coauthor, Sean Blenkinsop, and me. Listen to the full episode here! The Ecologizing Education book is not yet published, so this is a sampler of what’s to come.

Finding the Daydreamer has been published! The fastest, cheapest way to get a copy is to contact your favourite local bookstore & ask them to order it.

Vancouver folks, Canterbury Tales on Commercial Drive is offering a 30% discount!

Listen in to my interview with Sheryl MacKay on CBC Radio’s North by Northwest Sunday, Oct. 25th at 7:00am PDT. Sheryl asks me questions about researching for my novel, developing character, and the experience of publishing.

If you miss the early morning airing, you can listen later, starting at minute 53 of the October 25, 2020 episode: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-43-north-by-northwest

Gratitude to the keen-eyed editors of Event Magazine for their input on my two poems, "Advice for Murdered Girls" and "Crossing the Street on the Way to the Divorce Office." Both poems can be found in the hot-off-the-press issue of Event, here: https://www.eventmagazine.ca/shop/product/current-issue/event-461/ 

Stay tuned for poetry forthcoming in Event Magazine. 

Thank you to the top-notch editors of Puritan Magazine for selecting two of my poems, "Acupuncture" and "Temporary Magician," for publication in the Puritan Fall 2015 edition. Thank you! 

http://puritan-magazine.com/two-poems-60/