Dear Friends, Family, Fellow Authors, and Cherished Readers,
Those of you who have been following my work for a while may know that I am a member of the BirthStrike Movement. I have maintained from an early age that I did not want children, but these reasons were largely eclipsed by the sobering truth of anthropogenic climate change, the emissions of greenhouse gases resulting in worsening and more frequent forest fires, hurricanes, flooding, and other extreme weather events.
My essay, “Elegy for an Empty Womb,” reflects on the difficult choice not to have children. It is an epistolary work, as you may have implied from the title of the anthology. “Elegy for an Empty Womb” takes the form of a letter to my never-to-be-born daughter, and will appear in the forthcoming anthology, Letters to Our Children, edited by Lee Fearnside and Robin Stock.
When I face my Gods in the afterlife and am asked about my role in the slow death of this world, the only planet in the universe known to harbor life, I will fall to my knees and admit to my guilt. Yes, I was complicit. No, I didn’t do enough to stop it. But I loved my only daughter enough not to drag her soul through the same suffering that will befall others of her generation.
As always, may inspiration find you in unexpected places,
Caitlin Cacciatore
