Writing the Anthropocenic Sea: Stories of Plastic and Alien Fish

My Creative Writing PhD explores what kinds of stories can make the environmental crisis of the oceans tangible. Facts on environmental problems are not enough to mobilise action: we need new experimental writing to communicate the urgency of the Anthropocene. I will explore multimodal and activist forms of writing by analysing and generating imaginative and culturally composite nonfiction about the ocean. Using my self-developed technique of site-specific 'material language,' which blends academic and creative writing, I will write about how my childhood fascination with the sea on the Dutch coast has informed my current environmentalism.