Lisa Maria Madera is an Ecuadorian American writer and educator whose work explores how cultural narratives shape our individual and communal relation to the Earth and her creatures.
Madera's work has appeared in Ecopsychology, Hypertext, JSRNC, Minding Nature, and in Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations a forthcoming book series from the Center for Humans and Nature. Her short story Luz Maria has been nominated for consideration in Best American Short Stories 2021.
Dedicated to fostering compassionate and resilient communities connected to Nature, Madera also designs and hosts trips to Ecuador providing opportunities for observation and reflection on how our relationship to the world is shaped by the cultural narratives that define us.
Madera offers her work in the spirit of hope that these reflections might empower all of us to realign our relationship in kinship to the Earth, to her many creatures, and to each other, ultimately realigning ourselves in right relation to the world around us so that we might live sustainably and in community.
Madera is currently working on a memoir entitled The Covid Chronicles: Lessons from Pacha Mama in the Face of Despair.