Creative Writing the Environment in the Philippine Context

Eco-Literature in the Philippines: A Necessary Genre

Environmental literature—or eco-literature—examines the relationship between people and nature through storytelling, poetry, and creative nonfiction. In the Philippines, where over 7,000 islands are constantly shaped by typhoons, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and rising seas, eco-literature is not just a genre. It is a vital, creative response to the climate crisis.

Here, the environment is more than setting—it is life source, culture bearer, and memory keeper. Filipino writers inherit a landscape of storms and seas, and through literature, they record not only damage and loss, but also resilience, kinship, and survival.

The Climate as Origin Story in Filipino Literature

In Filipino storytelling, weather is not a backdrop—it’s central to narrative and identity. Long before colonization or nationhood, our islands were shaped by the rhythms of monsoons, the patterns of tides, and the fertility of volcanic soil. Many of our metaphors are ecological: inaagosto, bagyo ng buhay, maulap ang pananaw, umambon ng biyaya, makulimlim ang isipan, lunod sa problema, sumabay sa agos, alon ng alaala, parang alikabok, amoy lupa, nag-ugat na sa upuan, nanlalamig na damdamin, parang bulkan kung magalit, di sinikatan ng araw.

To be Filipino is to grow up amid storm alerts, evacuation drills, and the unmistakable scent of rain. Everyone has a flood story. This climate-borne reality shapes our collective memory and fuels our literary imagination. The environment is not a distant issue; it is a lived experience that seeps into our stories, poetry, and even our silences.

Eco-Creative Practices: How Filipino Writers Respond to Climate Change

Filipino writers, poets, and storytellers don’t treat climate as backdrop—it determines craft. From structure to setting, metaphor to emotional tone, the climate becomes an active element of writing. The narrative of typhoons, landslides, rising tides, and displaced communities is embedded in fiction, poetry, memoir, and speculative writing.

Writing the environment also means writing about memory and loss: what the sea took, what the mountains held, and what vanishes with each storm. Creative writing becomes documentation, elegy, and act of resistance.

Filipino Writers as Keepers of Ecological Memory

Many contemporary works in Filipino eco-literature bridge art and advocacy. These poems and stories remember devastated landscapes, evoke ecological grief, and offer ways of healing through language:

Environmental themes are no longer optional for Philippine literature. Typhoons like Yolanda and Odette have permanently altered both geography and consciousness. Deforestation, land reclamation, and plastic pollution continue to threaten communities and cultures.

Many Filipino eco-writers take on the role of chroniclers—listening to the environment, witnessing its changes, and writing both for remembrance and survival:

• Merlinda Bobis: Based in Australia, her stories are filled with memories of the Bicol Landscape, especially as it is overshadowed by the magnificent Mayon Volcano

• Merlie Alunan: Samar-based poet exploring the Waray landscape and environmental memory.

• Marjorie Evasco: Writing in English, her poetry recalls the wonders of the sea, sacred ecology, and womanhood.

• Luisa A. Igloria: A diasporic voice whose poems revisit Philippine flora, myth, and terrain

Writing the Storm: A Call to Filipino Creatives

Creative writing in the time of climate crisis is more than expression—it is attention, witness, and care. Filipino writers and readers alike are invited to listen closely to the land, to record the slow disappearance of familiar coastlines, to honor the voices of places at risk.

To write with the weather is to accept the storm not just as threat but as teacher. In doing so, Filipino creatives offer not just stories—but a practice of remembering, of resisting, and of reimagining life with the Earth.