The Gift of Words: As the World Burns: Writers and Artists Reflect on a World Gone Mad

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As the World Burns: Writers and Artists Reflect on a World Gone Mad is an anthology of poetry, prose, essay, and art inspired by the unprecedented events of the year 2020. It embraces fierce and raw creative works relating to life during the Covid-19 pandemic, Black Lives Matter, Donald Trump, and the economic uncertainty and horror of the last eight months. One hundred and fourteen writers and artists spanning ten countries and 30 states are represented in this powerful volume. It is both a story of survival and an act of resistance.

“As the World Burns is an outstanding collection of prose, poetry, and art that brilliantly illuminates the monumental events weighing upon our world, it’s communities and families, friends, and neighbors. The anthology gives a voice to myriad emotions that have settled into hearts and souls worldwide, yet stick in our collective throats, unable to be spoken, leaving a wake of communal helplessness. As The World Burns has accomplished the difficult task of translating our grief, fear, anger, disillusion, and uncertainty, into a glorious tapestry shining with strands of hope. The commonalities feed our sense of community, optimism, and promise (Allie Nelson – Redbird “there is not much constant in nature but effervescent change, I am the bones of winter, and it’s only in planting beauty that we can hope”). 

Within each piece, I found a passion that echoed my perceptions, whether the subject matter was racial injustice (Robert Okaji – If We Burn “and which assemblage of words could reorder these deaths into comprehension”), pandemic (Aakriti Kuntal – Forward  “because sometimes just breathing again is moving on”), climate change (Rachel Tijou – I Don’t Recognize This World “earth crumbles with the weight of our greed”), police brutality (Erin Van Vuren – Revolution “You were never meant to be a tragedy. You are, and always have been… a revolution.”), greed (A. Shea Holding On “if we only held on to life every day like we do when we are afraid of losing it.”), or political division (Dustin Pickering – The Price of Power  “being is timeless and belongs to us all”).

This collection deeply reverberates my spirit of hope, that together, we can lift one another up and work towards regenerating a world that values life, nature, peace, equality, reason, and truth.”

–Laurie Wise, blogger, A Wise Woman Writes

As the World Burns: Writers and Artists Reflect on a World Gone Mad is available for purchase at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, IndieBound, Waterstones, Book Depository, and from other major online retailers.

ISBN-13: ‎978-1951724047