Early summer comes slowly to Atlantic Canada, but it is one of my favorite times of year. We’ve had a mix of rainstorms and the most pleasant sunshiny days. Read my latest Backyard Wildlife post to find out more.
Tenth Birthday
On August 13th, Dragonfly.eco turns ten! It’s hard to believe that ten years have gone by since I first began the site. So much has changed in ecologically oriented fiction since I dreamed up the concept of archiving it and raising awareness of it online, which grew into a mega-project of not just a large database but a collaborative site with guest reviewers and posts, interviews, and more as well as some outreach through social media such as Discord. Even before Dragonfly, starting in the mid-2010s, I was writing my first climate-change novel. The curiosity about this literature grew into a lifetime project, and I’m still having fun with it. Thanks to readers of the site, and this newsletter, for helping keep it alive.
Book of the Month
The Rewilding Our Stories Discord is reading House of Rust by Khadija Abdalla Bajaber, a young Kenyan poet. I first learned about the story a few years ago. The manuscript won the first Graywolf Press African Prize in 2018. This award was established to recognize African writers who write about Africa.
When came news that the manuscript would be published, I pre-ordered it as soon as I could and have been reading it along with our Discord community—happy that they also voted to read this amazing novel.
Aisha is a Hadhrami girl living in Mombasa who takes to the sea in a boat made of bones—with a talking scholar’s cat—to find her fisherman father, who has disappeared. The story is visceral, unique, refreshing, and keenly descriptive about things we might ordinarily consider mundane. The novel is not mundane, though; it’s a magical fantastical journey on the sea, with a special mindfulness toward sea spirits as well as marine ecology. Against the backdrop of nature, including the author plopping into animals like crows and sharks to consider their perspectives, this has got to be one of the most interesting novels I’ve read in some time.
What’s New?
World Eco-fiction Spotlight - Dr. Jewell Parker Rhodes
It was great chatting with Dr. Jewell Parker Rhodes about her YA/teen novel Paradise on Fire. (See the author’s site for more.) It is just that time of year when wildfires are starting to break out around the world. This novel speaks to the younger me, in a sense. I was so into wilderness treks and camping when younger—and even as an adult. But as a child, it was all new and a learning experience. In the novel, a Bronx teenager, Addy, haunted by her tragic past, joins five other Black city kids—each with their own troubles—to spend a summer out west. There they learn to depend upon each other for companionship and strength. But then comes a devastating forest fire. It’s a thrilling and heartfelt survival tale exploring issues of race, class, and climate change.
Impakter Article
I wrote an article for Impakter about what eco-fiction is and why it matters. I gave some recommendations that stray outside of the normal North American authors that you read about in popular media. I list some of my all-time favorites, including the Book of the Month above!
Eco-fiction Subreddit
Don’t forget that a new eco-fiction subreddit is now live and becoming more active. This seems like a good resource and provides daily updates of news, books, questions, resources, films, and more. To find more sites affiliated with Dragonfly, we have a new Link Tree here.
Turning the Tide
Turning the Tide is a section at Dragonfly.eco devoted to children, teens, and YA fiction and news. This month we feature Dr. Jewell Parker Rhodes’ Paradise on Fire and Kimberly Christensen’s review of Elaine Dimopoulos’ children’s novel Turn the Tide.
Indie Corner Spotlight
This month I chat with Aleksandar Nedeljkovic about his novel ALT (Atmosphere Press, 2022). ALT offers a glimpse into a perilous near-future version of our world—one we feared would come for us but desperately tried to ignore. Civilization has entered a nearly irrevocable downward spiral following a history of misguided priorities and the corrosive effects of unchecked greed, political polarization, our reckless dependence on fossil fuels, and a flagrant disregard for the importance of maintaining a harmonic balance with nature.
The Stolen Child Is Coming this Fall
On a personal note, I was so happy to reconnect with an editor I met long ago, Fran Hatton, at my first job out of college. She was one of my mentors at my new copy-editing job at Prentice-Hall, which was later acquired by Macmillan Publishing. I hired Fran to edit my novel The Stolen Child, out this November from Dragonfly Publishing. I love what she’s done with the book and want to publicly recommend her editing services. If you need an editor, she’s your girl. If you’re interested, contact me and I’ll hook you up. Also, I’ll have an ARC ready by next month if you’re interested in reading or reviewing it. This is the sequel to Back to the Garden, which was listed as recommended reading at Sierra Club, Queensland University of Technology’s Earth Day reads, and LitHub. It was also mentioned in several books, including:
Sarah E. McFarland (2021). Ecocollapse Fiction and Cultures of Human Extinction. Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 12-13.
Gary Paul Nabhan (2016). Ethnobiology for the Future: Linking Cultural and Ecological Diversity. University of Arizona Press, p. 278.
Martin Bunzi (2014). Uncertainty and the Philosophy of Climate Change. Routledge, p. 175.
Tidbits
I wanted to wait until after posting important spotlights, as well as the newsletter, to transfer our domains over to a new hosting space. While this shouldn’t cause any downtime, the website might look weird for a bit. Thanks for your patience, and be sure, if you visit Dragonfly, to clear your cache in the upcoming days and few weeks.
The Rewilding Our Stories Discord has grown substantially since its early days. We’re trying to engage more with things like the book club, a weekly questions thread, and a self-promotion avenue for people who introduce themselves and remain active.
On another personal note, my first job here in Nova Scotia is moving from a contract position to a permanent position at the end of the month. I am so excited! My title is technical writer, but my position on the team is Localization Expert. I work with translations and localization of many languages around the world. The team is in Halifax, and I’ve gotten to know them in the last eight months and love working with them; there’s also two other fiction authors on the team! How this news affects this newsletter is only that my days are busier, and I haven’t had a chance to do some projects I want to finish, like the next Medium article and third install of the “80 books around the world” series. I’m behind on adding new books to the site this month but hope to catch up soon. You can check our last few newsletters for new and upcoming books! Spring also meant a lot of garden work as well as getting the final draft of my next novel ready.
Resources
In case you’ve missed these exciting resources at Dragonfly, which are constantly being updated, check ‘em out!
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 900 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
Backyard Wildlife: A hidden gem exploring how we are rewilding our own backyard and meadow
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.
Copyright 2024 Mary Woodbury