Author Archives: Lauren James

by Sarah Blake, author of the adult dystopian novel Clean Air Most of us are familiar with parts of nature being personified in our books and in the shows and movies we watch. My earliest memory of personification might be a face drawn on a cloud, cheeks puffed out, blowing a gust of wind throughContinue reading “On Writing Nature with Agency”

This essay was originally published in Imaginary Papers, January 2019. Today the Imagination and Climate Futures Initiative released Everything Change, Volume II, a short story anthology collecting the finalists of their 2018 Climate Fiction Contest. I had the honor of having my story “Sunshine State,” cowritten with Adam Flynn, included in the first Everything ChangeContinue reading “How speculative fiction thinks about social change by Andrew Dana Hudson”

Eco-fiction and climate fiction include environmental and nature themes, which can be written in a wide variety of styles and span all genres including mystery, romance, thriller, coming-of-age, dystopian, utopian, magical realism, and realist fiction. This sub-genre can be as diverse as our natural world. It is multicultural, global—and may include animals too. Environmental fictionContinue reading “The Art and Craft of Climate Fiction by Claire Datnow”

I’m the creative manager of Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors, the climate fiction short story contest out of Grist Magazine.Every year we ask fiction writers across the globe toenvision a green, clean and just future. The tales they tell help expand our ability to imagine a better planet. This year on October 4,Continue reading “Hope is planting seeds for trees under which you will never sit”

Author of climate rom-com Habitat Man, D. A. Baden, discusses her recent work on a climate anthology. A group of chemical engineers from Herculean Climate Solutions based in Malaysia approached me in April of this year, so frustrated by the lack of progress that they wanted to see if climate related stories with a positiveContinue reading “214 Days to Create a Cli-fi Anthology by D.A. Baden”

There is no doubt, a new Space Age is upon us. And, as much as I love the idea of space exploration and the discoveries/technology it will inevitably inspire, it bothers me. It bothers me so much it inspired my novel, City of Rust– a cli-fi story of tribalism, technology, ingenuity and… a planet-load ofContinue reading “Cosmic Wasteland by Gemma Fowler”

My hairdresser’s son cries when items about climate change come on the news. He’s eight years old and he thinks we are all going to die. He’s really scared about the future. Like millions of children around the world with ‘eco-anxiety’ this affects his ability to function normally, thanks to a chronic fear of environmentalContinue reading “Eco-anxiety – today’s childhood malaise by Carol Garden”

For the second year of Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors, writers from across the globe engaged their imaginations in discovering intersectional worlds of generational healing and community-based solutions. This year’s three winners and nine finalists bring new perspectives to the vital genre of climate fiction, with short stories that offer visions of abundance,Continue reading “Two Emerging Caribbean Writers”

Today Mary Woodbury, the social media manager for the Climate Fiction Writers League, talks to Mark Ballabon about her new novel, The Stolen Child. Mary writes under the penname Clare Hume. Mark: What really motivated you to write The Stolen Child and what age range are you writing to? Mary: Part one is Back toContinue reading “An ode to nature and a warning against cultural trappings”

Narrating ‘stories’ is an ancient, lasting, and universal way humans have developed, to make sense of themselves and the world, and this includes linking together a series of facts (or events) from which to derive meaning. There is a huge, gathering factual story facing all of us – with no definitive end in our lifetimeContinue reading “Just Stories: African Solarpunk Challenging a Growing Climate Apartheid by Nick Wood”