‘Sarahland would trick me into thinking it was the entire world’: Sam Cohen’s short story cycle as queer ecology

This article proposes that in Sarahland (2021), Sam Cohen makes of the short story cycle form a productive arena in which to explore queer ecological concerns. Reading with queer ecocritic Nicole Seymour, it argues that the early stories frame heteronormativity as an ecology of harm whilst also exploring the difficulties of using critical theory to create more caring, queerer alternatives. The later stories, in making their environmentalist concerns more explicit, go further in articulating a queer ecological consciousness. The discussion focuses on how Cohen creates a dense ecology of affective, narrative and symbolic connections between the component stories. It suggests that the short story cycle is a form rich with possibility for exploring questions of queer futurity, ecology and belonging.