THEAGAMAGENDA

BE PART OF THE RISE OF

Harvest Moon: Poems and Stories from

the Edge of the Climate Crisis (2021)

How shall we tell s tories that remake the contour s of our world?
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APOWERHOUSEANTHOLOGY
THE AGAM AGENDA BRINGS TOGETHER LITERARY
STALWARTS AND RISING STARS FROM AFRICA, ASIA AND THE
PACIFIC, AND LATIN AMERICA.

O V E R V IEW
 H A R VE S T M O O N : P O E M S A N D S T O R I E S
F R O M T H E E D G E O F T H E CL I M A T E C R I S I
S

AN INTERNATIONAL ANTHOLOGY

Curator-editors
Rehana Rossouw, Regional Lead for Africa. A journalist for 30 years; her beat
included the late Nelson Mandela. Her first novel, What Will People Say?, was shortlisted
for the Etisalat Prize and garnered the 2017 Book Prize from the National Institute for
Humanities and Social Sciences.
Alexandra Walter, Regional Lead for Latin America. A professional translator, editor,
and multi-awarded documentary filmmaker. She founded and has coordinated for the last 25
years the Colombian poetry group La Pacha Mama, whose slogan is “Drop the gun, raise a
poem”.
Padmapani L. Perez, Regional Lead for Asia and the Pacific. An anthropologist with
a doctorate from Leiden University, a widely-published poet, feature writer, and contributor to
Agam: Filipino Narratives. She is the author of Green Entanglements:
Nature-Conservation and Indigenous Peoples Rights in Indonesia and the
Philippines. Padma is also the Project Lead for Agam International.

Our contributors include

Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner, Marshall Islands. Ambassador for Culture of the Climate
Vulnerable Forum. In 2014, Jetñil-Kijiner performed her poem ‘Dear Matafele Peinem,’ at the
opening of the U.N. Climate Forum in New York. Luisa Igloria, Philippines and USA.
Poet Laureate for Virginia 2020-2022. 2006 National Writers Union Prize. 2018 Center for
Book Arts Letterpress Chapbook Prize. 2015 Inaugural Resurgence Prize for Ecopoetry.
Leonardo Padura, Cuba. Premio Principe de Asturias de Las Letras, Ibero
American equivalent of the Nobel Prize for Literature. 2013 Chevalier of the Ordre des
Arts et des Lettres, France.
Irma Pineda, Mexico. Latin American to representative to the U.N. Permanent Forum on
Indigenous Issues 2020-2022. Author of seven books of bilingual Isthmus Zapotec-Spanish
poetry.
Fiston Mwanza Mujila, Democratic Republic of Congo. 2016 Etisalat Prize for
Literature. 2017 International Literature Award from Berlin's Haus der Kulturen der Welt and
the foundation Elementarteilchen.
Siphiwe Ndlovu, Zimbabwe. 2019 Sunday Times’ Literary Awards’ Barry Ronge Fiction
Prize for her first novel, The Theory of Flight.

C O N TE N T S
H A R VE S T M O O N : P O E M S A N D S T O R I E S
F R O M T H E E D G E O F T H E CL I M A T E C R I S I
S

AN INTERNATIONAL ANTHOLOGY

Introduction by Renato Redentor Constantino

I.
The Waning Moon.
La’Dxi Bidxi by Irma Pineda (Mexico)
Impossible Bottles by Luisa Igloria (Philippines)
Llueve by Jose Zuleta (Colombia)
What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu
(Zimbabwe)
No Entiendo by Leonardo Padura (Cuba)
Menjaga Warisan by Darmawati Majid (Indonesia)
Miuja Ya Walimwengu by Islam Juma Kapera (Tanzania)
Memorandum by Peter Johnston (South Africa)

II.
The Dark Night.
Cuando Todo Acabe by Shirley Campbell (Costa Rica) Nice
Voice by Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner (Marshall Islands) When the
Storm’s Over by Lauri Kubuitsile (Botswana) El Final by
Leopoldo Castilla (Argentina)
Point of Disembarkation by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor (Kenya) Preire d’un
Enfant du Monde by Fiston Mwanza Mujilla (Democratic Republic of the
Congo)
Half Life by Aaron Lee Soon Yong (Singapore)
What We Lost in the Floods by Malebo Sephodi (South Africa)

C O N TE N T S
H A R VE S T M O O N : P O E M S A N D S T O R I E S
F R O M T H E E D G E O F T H E CL I M A T E C R I S I
S

AN INTERNATIONAL ANTHOLOGY

III.
The Waxing Moon
Listen Up, People by Leila MacLeod (South Africa)
Vamos a Impedirlo by Roberto Manzano (Cuba)
Custodians of a Thin Edge by Andy Jarvis (Colombia) A Mass for
our Fragile Earth by Antje Krog (South Africa) Neer Nyanam by
M. Yuvan (India)
Antigone antigone by Prateebha Tuladhar (Nepal)
El Lobo Blanco de Angmagssalik by Marga Lopez (Colombia) The
Others by Yewande Omotoso (Nigeria)
Because your Body is a Border by Rain Chudori (Indonesia) Full
Moon by Xiaojun Wang (China)

IV.
The Full Moon.
Pangwani by Gawani D. Gaongen (Philippines)
Cantos de Mañana by Margarito Cuellar (Mexico)
Incierto Mar Sin Horizonte by Rocio Cardoso (Uruguay)
Yosunlu Ev by Delal Arya (Turkey)
Farol de Combate by Marjorie Evasco (Philippines)

C
O
N
 TE N T S

H A R VE S T M O O N : P O E M S A N D S T O R I E S
F R O M T H E E D G E O F T H E CL I M A T E C R I S I
S

AN INTERNATIONAL ANTHOLOGY

Photographers*
Oluwabukunola Adesanwo (South Africa)
Hector Gonzalez de Cunco (Chile)
Vinai Dithajohn (Thailand)
Maria Faciolince (Colombia)
Maxisole Feni (South Africa)
Ashraf Hendricks (South Africa)
Patricia López (Chile)
Lisa Lorenzo (Philippines)
Holanda-Caballero Mafla (Colombia)
Gabriel Rojas Manjarez (Colombia)
Dylan Mohlala (South Africa)
Nyancho Nwanri (South Africa)
Enrique Pezo (Peru)
Flor Ruiz (Peru)
Narendra Shrestha (Nepal)
Beatrice Velarde (Peru)

*Each literary piece was prompted by a photograph randomly selected from ICSC's collection, which was
acquired from the portfolios of these photographers. The images and the stories or poems they inspired
appear together in the book. Selected (cropped) images by Holanda Caballero, Dylan Mohlala, Maria
Faciolince, and Enrique Pezo are featured in this document. The cover photo is by Maria Faciolince.

This forthcoming book comes from the creators of Agam: Filipino Narratives on Uncertainty and
Climate Change (2014): Winner of three national book awards in the Philippines. Hailed by scholars of
eco-criticism as "one of the penultimate anthologies in the Global South." 26 images, 24 narratives in verse
and prose in eight Philippine languages.
REWRITINGOURFUTURES
WITHACTIONABLEHOPE.
 “Agam is exquisite: a deeply original concept executed with
tremendous artistry. Rather than asking readers to care about
the whole world at once, these elegant vignettes distill the
climate crisis down to its most intimate and human details.

By focusing on the small, the biggest questions of all are

cracked open. How do we heal after our most beloved and
nourishing places have turned against us? How do we live in a
world that has itself become a question mark? And most of all:
How can we stop inflicting such violence on one another?”

—Naomi Klein on Agam: Filipino Narratives

on Uncertainty and Climate Change (2014)

REACH US

Padma Perez, Lead Strategist for Creative Collaboration | padma@agam.ph Carissa

Pobre, Strategist for Creative Collaboration | carissa@agam.ph

*In Filipino agam-agam means foreboding and connotes doubt and uncertainty. The
root, agam, also means a memory of the past and the ability to think.

agamagenda.com