Latest news with #ClimateFiction
The Guardian
15 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Look up: five hopeful novels about the climate crisis
'Can literature be a tool to encourage something better – creating eco-topia on the page, so it might be imagined off it?' asks the novelist Sarah Hall in this weekend's Guardian magazine. Climate fiction – or 'cli-fi' – continues to grow as a genre in its own right; the first Climate fiction prize was awarded this year. And while the roots of environmental fiction are in apocalypse and despair, these five writers are moving beyond dystopia to hopeful possibilities. Powers was awarded the 2019 Pulitzer for this love letter to the arboreal world. Mimicking the interlinked canopy and undergrowth of the forest, he weaves the stories of nine core characters whose lives are deeply connected to trees. Olivia and Nick, for example, set up camp in a giant redwood for a year to prevent it from being cut down. They connect with other characters over their environmental activism, with one tragic consequence. But ultimately the novel is a homage to the resilience of humans and trees. In Ghosh's globetrotting novel inspired by Bengali legends, environmental destruction surfaces again and again: climate change-induced migration, wildfires, beached dolphins. This is no dystopia, but climate realism. Yet the novel feels fundamentally hopeful, with Ghosh nodding to cross-cultural cooperation as a means of facing climate destruction. Two female characters, marine biologist Piya and historian Cinta, also fortify us. 'I don't think my book is climate fiction at all,' said Ghosh in a 2019 interview. 'It's actually a reality that in hard circumstances humans often discover joy and faith.' Originally published in 1993, Parable of the Sower is set between 2024 and 2027 in a California bordering on anarchy, marked by economic breakdown and climate change. The narrator, Lauren Olamina, suffers from hyperempathy syndrome, meaning she feels the pain of others acutely. She creates a new religion, Earthseed, which posits that humans have the power to 'shape God' and enact change. Verses from Earthseed's book of scripture are scattered throughout the novel: 'Belief initiates and guides action – or it does nothing.' Escaping an unhappy marriage on a failing Appalachian farm, Dellarobia is en route to meet her would-be lover when she is stopped in her tracks by a sea of orange monarch butterflies, set off their migratory course by climate change. Dellarobia's discovery draws an entomologist to the area, and with his help she undergoes a metamorphosis of her own. This slim novel, published in 2021, is set on a utopian moon, Panga, following a destructive 'Factory Age'. Humanity has since deindustrialised, transitioning to agrarian, sustainable living. Our protagonist, non-binary tea monk Dex, travels between Panga's villages in their wagon, offering personalised brews and a listening ear to troubled residents. But soon, Dex craves quiet, and journeys into the wilderness, where they strike up a friendship with a robot, Splendid Speckled Mosscap, who is looking to answer the question: 'What do humans need?' This cosy novella slots into the 'hopepunk' subgenre of speculative fiction for its optimistic exploration of life's meaning and humanity's relationship to nature and technology.
BBC News
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Wolverhampton graduate, Abi Daré, wins first Climate Fiction Prize
The winner of the first ever Climate Fiction Prize has been announced as Nigerian author, Abi Daré.The University of Wolverhampton law graduate has been awarded the inaugural prize for her novel, And So I Roar, a sequel to her bestselling debut, The Girl with the Louding So I Roar delves into the lives of rural women and girls in Nigeria, whose lives are impacted by environmental who lives in Essex, said: "As a Black British-Nigerian woman, receiving this prize is a reminder that we do not need to wait for permission to step into global conversations or to contort our stories to fit a certain lens." The author won the prestigious £10,000 prize at a ceremony in London on Wednesday and judging chair Madeleine Bunting described the novel as: "A book of real energy and passion, which both horrifies and entertains with a cast of compelling characters, a story of how the climate crisis can provoke social crisis where often women and children are the victims. "Despite the tragedy, Abi Daré holds faith in the strength of individuals and relationships, and her hopefulness leaves us inspired." The Climate Prize strives to celebrate the most inspiring novels tackling the climate crisis. On its official website, a spokesperson for the prize said: "We want to reward and showcase powerful stories that depict the human response to climate change, how it impacts us and how society responds."For societies to fully grasp the climate change threat and to embrace its solutions, we need better stories. It's not enough for audiences to know about climate change, they need to see an uncertain future and understand that change is urgent but possible."Many of us already see tackling climate as important, but we don't always know how we should respond. Fiction can help us imagine what change can look like."And So I Roar was one of five books to be shortlisted alongside The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley, Briefly Very Beautiful by Roz Dineen, The Morningside by Téa Obreht and Orbital by Samantha Harvey - which won the 2024 Booker Prize. Speaking of Daré's win, David Wedge, the University of Wolverhampton's head of alumni relations, said: "We are incredibly proud of Abi for winning this groundbreaking award. It's a fantastic testament to her talent and the importance of her writing."Daré will also be a speaker at the University of Wolverhampton's inclusivity conference, Authentic Allyship, on Thursday 12 June. Follow BBC Wolverhampton & Black Country on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
