Celebrating Earth Day 2026: Embracing the More-Than-Human

Today is Earth Day and we want to invite you to check out a wealth of ecologically themed material published to mark the day. Please browse our content below.

Editorial

MODRON recently took part in a convivial and encouraging discussion on the more-than-human, facilitated by Magma Poetry. Reflecting on it later, we were struck by how nuanced the understanding of the term more-than-human is becoming, and how many truly ground-breaking writers and artists are finding the term fruitful and challenging and liberating. The more-than-human is a vital and exciting emerging area of study; crucial even, if we are to begin to relate to the world in a way that is capable of truly perceiving it as more than an inert resource. It invites us to engage with many deeply radical questions that overturn our core cultural and intellectual customs and assumptions.

MODRON’s Earth Day 2026 Special Issue foregrounds our more-than-human interview series. Among the interviews featured here, Gray Harper, a queer disabled poet based in Brighton and winner of the Bridport Prize for Poetry, offers a powerful perspective shaped by embodiment and environment. Matthew Griffiths, an editor, educator and author, reflects on childhood and the legacy of ecological change for kids.

We also feature poet, Chloe Hanks, whose innovative work explore the compelling nature of poisonous plants such as belladonna. Lauren Thomas’s poem ‘A History of My Father as the Arctic’ moves between personal and ecological loss with quiet emotional clarity. Gabriela Denise Frank contributes ‘How to Live on a Damaged Planet,’ accompanied by original artwork and a lively, thoughtful discussion that opens out questions of writing, survival and adaptation.

Anstice Fisher presents a fascinating poem and interview engaging with herbalism and plant knowledge, while Hilary Davies offers ‘The Tollgate’ and reflects on endangered ecosystems such as Britain’s rainforests. Catherine Balaq considers climate change through the disorienting lens of March snow and shifting seasonal patterns. Ilse Pedler offers ‘How We Hid the Truth’ alongside reflections on the Thrutopian collective and magazine, Bending the Arc.

Beyond the interview series, we’re also delighted to feature an interview with Clare Shaw, who recently co-edited The Book of Bogs with Anna Chilvers. This remarkable anthology gathers 40 writers exploring peatlands through poetry, essays, and stories, opening up these vital and often overlooked environments.

We include hybrid, mixed-media poetry from Jhilam Chattaraj that pushes at the boundaries of form, and we offer original poetry: from Max Wallis, author of Modern Love and editor of The Aftershock Review, and from Welsh poet, performer, and curator of Welshpool Poetry Festival, Pat Edwards. Finally, there is writing in Cymraeg which we will leave to our editor, Siân Melangell Dafydd, to present.

         Kristian Evans & Zoë Brigley

Ar drothwy’r haf a holl flodau Calan Mai, hoffwn eich gwahodd i mewn i erddi hyfryd caffi Caban, Brynrefail – hafan yng nghanol Eryri. Yno, bu cymuned yn ymgynnull gyda’r bwriad o ddeall eu lle ym myd natur, a lles gwreiddio ymhellach ynddo, bob dydd. Mae MODRON wedi bod yn awyddus iawn i roi lle i leisiau a phrosiectau cymunedol ecolegol ers i ni ddechrau. Wrth wraidd ein gwaith rhyngwladol, mae’r filltir sgwâr. Megan Lloyd fu’n arwain y gweithdai, gyda nawdd Sgwennu’n Well gan Lenyddiaeth Cymru. Ceir yma gerdd gan Megan ei hun i groesawu Diwrnod y Ddaear a gwaith gan y cyfranogwyr, Melda Lois a Sioned Spencer. Braint yw cynnwys eu lleisiau ymysg beirdd MODRON.

Cofion annwyl atoch, ddarllenwyr,

         Siân Melangell Dafydd