(from an interview with Glyn F. Edwards, published in the Welsh journal Modron Magazine (Writing on Nature & the Ecological Crisis), April 14th 2024.
Q4. Sexuality and ecology are central themes in your poetic voice – do you consider them disparate or allied?
I’ve always felt very comfortable writing about ecology and the sexuality of the more-than-human world (some of the poems I wrote during childhood were about the love between rhododendrons and eucalyptuses, tiger quolls and Tasmanian devils, and the Derwent estuary’s freshwater and saltwater), but, until a few years ago, very uncomfortable writing about my (and other human beings’) sexuality.
Growing up among the kaleidoscopic foothills of kunanyi / Mount Wellington was astounding, but growing up gay/queer in lutruwita / Tasmania (the last Australian state to decriminalise sex between consenting adult men—the maximum penalty was 21 years in jail, the harshest in the Western world) was terrifying. The homophobia I experienced from five to 18 that manifested itself in psychological and physical violence contorted my perception of my sexuality—writing about it was torturous, then impossible. As a teenager I found solace in walking solo along the fern-edged trails near my home and with friends at beautiful Cradle Mountain–Lake St Clair National Park, Walls of Jerusalem National Park and Mount Field National Park (which, with other national parks and reserves, comprise the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area).
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