Winners of the City of Anacortes recycling slogan contest are Emily Degn, honorable mention, left; Liberty Degn, honorable mention; Sydney Berris, most inspirational; and Abigail Degn, best slogan. They were presented plaques by Mayor Dean Maxwell at the City Council’s July 7 meeting. Their images encouraging residents to recycle will soon appear on the city’s Web site, TV Channel 10 and on city solid waste trucks.

Emily is an environmental advocate, published eco-poet and essayist, nature writer, and artist. Her work is grounded in a strong sense of place, as she explores themes of wildness, ecofeminism, and interconnection. Her writings have been nominated for multiple awards — most recently, the Best of Net. She has focused her career on forging a bond between people and nature, tackling the assumption that humans are separate from the natural world. Aside from her creative work, Emily also teaches local nature classes to democratize environmental knowledge.

It’s not a perfectly fair comparison, because Iceland is a small, homogeneous society, but it does bear considering how this one country has managed to count published authors as one tenth of its overall population, and 25 percent of its citizens in creative fields. Unsurprisingly, the country’s success, when it comes to optimizing the creative capacity of its residents, lies with first ensuring that other needs are met. As Emily Iris Degn optimistically writes, "Slow living, governments that discourage “hustle culture,” and engaged learning all help cultivate an environment that allows art to thrive—especially writers. Writing is one of the more time-consuming arts, and if we want to create a world where it is more possible for more people, we have to make space for it. … If countries want to make space for more rewarding and enriching art and literature, they need to allow their citizens to open their minds. They need to ensure that they have their basic needs met, and they need to encourage slowing down and living in a hands-on way. Otherwise, it will continually be an uphill battle and a land of “starving artists,” while in Iceland they thrive." And if I’m a bit hard on my SFF industry, as it struggles complexly with the depreciation of Twitter as a promotional platform? It’s because we all have “being in the room” privilege: seats at the table to discuss the future of a highly specialized creative practice, and to make decisions that will shape participation for everyone to come. The arts will continue. The question is, will we dreamers of better dreams learn from all of social media’s failures to yield equity, as we imagine better worlds ahead?

Devon Brown gets personal with Emily Degn! Emily opens up about her conversion at 16, a mission to Brazil, the events that led to her family's faith crisis, and much more!