Jessica Gaitán Johannesson

Jessica Gaitán Johannesson is a Swedish/Colombian writer and climate justice activist based in Edinburgh. Recently appointed Wasafiri's new Writer-in-Residence for 2021-22, she facilitates workshops exploring the colonial roots of the climate crisis. Her debut novel How We Are Translated was published by Scribe in February 2021. In this life writing piece published in Wasafiri 107: Crisis/Recovery, Jessica writes with unflinching grace – and unexpected humour – about the intersection between the climate crisis, guilt, shame, and the body. In this extract, she circles back through her memory to the moment when environmental collapse became unbearably real.