A quote from Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Water Knife is, “If the whole world was burning, why not face it with a beer in your hand, unafraid?”

Last month I explored water in fiction. This month I’ll look more closely at the lack of it. We’ve had drought since June in Nova Scotia. An 8,000-hectare wildfire grows about an hour west of us in the beautiful Annapolis Valley, where we recently hit up some farmer’s markets. Winds from Hurricane Erin over the weekend fanned the flames but did not provide rain. Fortunately, in the east coast area, we finally had our first substantial summer rain yesterday, but our grass and trees are stressed, dry, and brittle. Woods are closed, we haven’t mowed the meadow in weeks, and it’s the first summer we haven’t had a bonfire due to a burn ban. I face our burning by working to raise awareness of climate change, even as I try to stay unafraid and positive. Do I face the burning world with a beer? Maybe a glass of red wine or a settling down at the end of the day listening to cricket songs.

Droughts in fiction

You can always look up the classics like Frank Herbert’s Dune series, John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, and lists of novels about droughts. The following list is a sampling I’ve explored in the past few years.

• The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi: A story set in the American Southwest as the dwindling water supply from the Colorado River ignites unrest, a growing division of rich vs. poor, and the struggle for survival.

• Oil on Water by Helon Habila: A novel about lack of clean water due to ecosystem destruction from oil industries in the Niger Delta.
  

  

• Sordidez by E.G. Condé: An Indigenous futurist science fiction novella set in Puerto Rico and the Yucatán, where a trans journalist covers a story about the hydrophage, a climate weapon unleashed by a dictator to turn the jungle into a desert.

• Wolf Light by Yaba Badoe: Three custodians defend their homelands—a desert, a forest, and a river, all threatened by gold-mine pollution.

  

• After the Dragons by Cynthia Zhang: Dragons were fire and terror to the Western world, but in the East they brought life-giving rain. As drought plagues the aquatic creatures, a mysterious disease—shaolong, or “burnt lung”—afflicts the city’s human inhabitants.

World ecofiction spotlight

This month we travel with Dheepa R. Maturi to a deep forest in India, in her new novel 108: An Eco-Thriller. There, Bayla Jeevan witnesses a noxious liquid spreading through the soil. At the same time, she receives a message from her father, presumed dead for fifteen years, warning her of imminent danger.

Other news

• This month’s Indie Corner spotlight is on Todd Medema and his new novel, How to Surf a Hurricane.

• The Rewilding our Stories Discord has been hopping lately, and it’s hard to believe we’re nearly into September with our year-long book club.

• Check out new ecofiction novels at Dragonfly.eco: blowing your mind with wild words and worlds.
  

  

• My book of the month is Ronni Lundy’s Victuals: An Appalachian Journey, with Recipes. What can I say? Appalachian living and cooking formed the adult me: growing food we love, preserving (drying and canning), and so much more. Victuals explores the diverse and complex food scene of the Mountain South through recipes, stories, traditions, and innovations.

• Flashback! Let’s go back to 2016, which seems like forever ago. I lived in Vancouver, ran Moon Willow Press, did a lot of trailrunning, worked full-time at a local college, and volunteered for Streamkeepers. Back then, before I discovered the .eco domain, Dragonfly was at eco-fiction.com (now defunct). The first edition of my novel Back to the Garden had a wholly different cover and wasn’t part of a duology yet. I’ve also left Twitter, along with Facebook and Instagram, since then. Thanks to the Writing Forums for their interview, which snapshots that time of my life.

  Resources

  • In case you’ve missed these exciting resources, including newest books at Dragonfly.eco, check ‘em out!

  • LinkTree: Find out more about me.

  • Dragonfly Publishing: My micro-press.

  • Rewilding Our Stories: A Discord community where you can find resources, reading, and writing fun in fiction that relates strongly to nature and environment.

  • I finally created a new playlist of “Nature, climate, and environmental songs”. Click here for part 1 (very long!) and here for the new part 2.

  • Book recommendations: a growing list of recs.

  • Eco/climate genres: They’re all over the place, and here’s an expanding compendium.

  • Inspiring and informative author quotes from Dragonfly’s interviews.

  • List of ecologically focused games.

  • List of eco/climate films and documentaries.

  • Eco-fiction links and resources.

  • Book database: Database of over 1,100 book posts at Dragonfly.eco.

  • Turning the Tide: The Youngest Generation: Fiction for children, teens, and young adults.

  • Indie Corner: The occasional highlight of authors who publish independently.

  • Artists & Climate Change. This site is no longer being updated but still has a wealth of info. I was a core writer for their team, and I’m both honored and grateful. Look for my “Wild Authors” series there.

Copyright 2025 Mary Woodbury