Two versions of reality can exist at the same time, at least in the quantum world. In the non-quantum world, the mirror of truth becomes smoky. As the LA Times said, “Dualities pervade nature…This doesn’t mean that ‘everything is relative,’ or that there’s no objective reality.” We have become increasingly so divisive over perspective beliefs, whether or not they are based in objective reality. I stand strong in my beliefs, because they are based on science, but I sill like to hope they we can “all get along”. To do this, I root for what makes us happy together—commonalities, not division. I also dislike stereotypes, because they fail to recognize healthy diversity among people of different religions, ethnicity, age groups, skin colors, sexual orientations, genders, and places—and they prescribe inaccurate assumptions, leading to hatred and removals of basic rights and freedoms for perceived differences. I realized long ago that the commonalities we share can be simple: food, music, memories, stories. These things, I think, can bring about empathy, peace, open-mindedness, and downright civility, which is sorely missing right now. When I think of a strong message for my December newsletter, it is to celebrate our commonalities, help those in need, become empathetic and open-minded, and give peace a chance.
Eco-fiction is a genre of stories that are usually based on objective truths: climate change, for instance, which is a fact on the ground with plenty of data that proves it’s happening. Eco-fiction also embraces a multitude of other observable facts, from plastic-ravaged oceans, endangered and extinct species, effects of colonization on historical and modern day people and lands, dangers of chemicals in our food chain (water, soil, air), and so much more. It’s a science-based genre but is still fiction and thus imaginative, taking place not just on Earth but in fantastical, magical, weird, or technologically altered worlds, which provide analogies and critical self-examination. The genre lends to horror and the weird, just as well, because what’s actually happening in our world is horrible and weird and sometimes we don’t know how to make sense of it. And ecological fiction is wholly inclusive. The stories provide literary ecosystems, wherein human nature and “other” nature are not opposite parts of the story but must cohabitate. Many genres are evolving due to multiple ways of telling these stories: speculative, Indigenous, cultural, water stories, crime, children’s and YA fiction, science fiction, fantasy, horror, weird, romance, historical, magical realist, and so much more. New genres have evolved that may rely heavily on the ecological, including solarpunk, lunarpunk, tidal punk, hopepunk, and a variety of beautiful futurisms, which take power over the stolen past of a people and imagine alternate realities or better futures that the people—rather than colonial powers—lead: Africanfuturism, Taínofuturism, Indigenous futurism, Métis futurism, and many others.
Gratitude
I’m starting to get more communication from readers of this newsletter. Thanks very much to Dede at Green Writers Press for the support. The press is one among many I’ve collaborated with throughout the years. I love that we have common goals of spreading hope and care for the natural world via stories.
Thanks also to authors Rajat Chaudhuri, Gene Helfman, and friends from the Rewilding Our Stories Discord. It’s great to exchange ideas and know that we are not alone in the endeavor of storytelling about the beauty and tragedy of the wilder world.
Eco-fiction world spotlight
This month we visit a few places in the world with Janice Pariat, author of Everything the Light Touches. It’s an amazing story that I enjoyed reading, from start to end.
In our interview, Janice explained the characters and happenings in the novel: In this book, we meet many travelers: Shai, a young Indian woman who journeys to India’s northeast and rediscovers, through her encounters with Indigenous communities, ways of being that realign and renew her. Evelyn, an Edwardian student at Cambridge who, inspired by Goethe’s botanical writings, embarks on a journey seeking out the sacred forests of the Lower Himalayas. Linnaeus, botanist and taxonomist, who famously declared “God creates; Linnaeus organizes” and led an expedition to Lapland in 1732. And Goethe himself, who traveled through Italy in the 1780s, formulating his ideas a revelatory text that called for a re-examination of our propensity to reduce plants—and the world—into immutable parts. Drawing richly from scientific ideas, the novel plunges into a whirl of ever-expanding themes, and the contrasts between modern India and its colonial past, urban life and the countryside, capitalism and centuries-old traditions of generosity and gratitude, script and ‘song and stone’. At the heart of the book lies a tussle between different ways of seeing—those who fix and categorize, and those who free and unify.
Book of the month
Alain Mabanckou’s As long as Trees Take Root in the Earth (Seagull Books/University of Chicago Press) is my book recommendation this month.
From the publisher:
These compelling poems by novelist and essayist Alain Mabanckou conjure nostalgia for an African childhood where the fauna, flora, sounds, and smells evoke snapshots of a life forever gone. Mabanckou’s poetry is frank and forthright, urging his compatriots to no longer be held hostage by the civil wars and political upheavals that have ravaged their country and to embrace a new era of self-determination where the village roosters can sing again…In these pages, Mabanckou pays tribute to his beloved mother, as well as to the regenerative power of nature, and especially of trees, whose roots are a metaphor for the poet’s roots, anchored in the red earth of his birthplace.
I found the prose breathtaking, allowing me to travel back to simpler times, whether it was a childhood full of hikes in the forest or even more recently when I’ve had time to sit on a log in the meadow or watch deer eat apples or butterflies open and close their wings to stay warm. The book reminds us to observe the nature existing beyond our busy, screened worlds. If anything, it takes us to a more objective truth than what’s in our indoors’ heads. Renewing and resilient, the poems lift up the reader.
Indie corner spotlight: Sarah Holding and her latest novel blackloop
The last time I interviewed Sarah was in June 2014, when she was in the midst of writing her SeaBEAN trilogy. Her newest novel is blackloop, a YA science fiction romance with climate themes.
In the novel, a freak electro-magnetic pulse leaves 17-year-old Bo and six other teenagers trapped inside a building in the British seaside resort of Blackpool, desperately trying to work out what just happened, why they can’t get out, and how to survive the weirdest weekend of their lives. Dealing with each other’s egos and issues is nothing compared to the fallout unleashed by the solar event, because hidden beneath the building they discover it has activated a powerful energy device called blackloop. As blackloop starts affecting everyone and everything in its vicinity, can Bo, who’s still grieving the loss of her mum, summon the courage to confront her fears, realise she’s falling in love, and make a move on Karim before it’s too late?
Other news
I’ve added some new books at Dragonfly recently, including:
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
The Darkhorse graphic novel Planeta Blu - Rise of Agoo, written by Tem Blessed and illustrated by Michael LaRiccia
The graphic novel Tales of the Urban Wild: A Puma’s Journey, written by Tiffany Yap and illustrated by Meital Smith
Secrets of the Sky series by Sayantani DasGupta
The Indigenous dark fiction anthology, Never Whistle at Night, edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.
Michikusa House by Emily Grandy
Spellcasters by Rajat Chaudhuri
Film submission
Climate Short Animation Film Competition is presented by Climate Spring, TK-FX, and Lowkey Films, in partnership with BBC Writers and BFI Network. It's a unique opportunity to direct the screen industry’s creativity towards climate action, by encouraging filmmakers and creatives to envision and articulate a world where sustainability and regeneration are the norm. This joint initiative will award the winning project with a total production budget of £30k and further in-kind production and climate advisory support.
Resources
In case you’ve missed these exciting resources at Dragonfly, which are constantly being updated, check ‘em out!
LinkTree: Find out more about my work.
Rewilding Our Stories: A Discord community, now expanded into a website, where you can find resources, reading, and writing fun in fiction that relates strongly to nature and environment. There’s a submissions call-out for writers’ experiences with climate changes. All are welcome to submit. Please see the guidelines at the site.
World’s biggest playlist? Our environmental/nature song-of-the-week playlist goes back to 2015.
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 1,000 book posts at Dragonfly.eco.
Turning the Tide: The Youngest Generation: Fiction aimed toward children, teens, and young adults.
Indie Corner: The occasional highlight of authors who publish independently.
Artists & Climate Change. This is an extraordinary resource delving into all kinds of the arts focused on climate change. For a while now they’ve been rerunning my world eco-fiction spotlights. I’m a core writer for their team, and I’m both honored and grateful. Look for my “Wild Authors” series there. Note that this site is indefinitely paused at the moment, but the owner let me know that the content isn’t going away.
Copyright 2024 Mary Woodbury