I finally got a chance to go on my first vacation in two years. Our very last holiday was spent at Salt Spring Island in British Columbia: camping, hiking, and hanging out at the beach. Then we moved to the east coast of Canada and Covid hit. Things are starting to open up more, so my mother-in-law and a family friend visited us, escaping the wildfires in BC. We went to the northern part of Nova Scotia, which was like revisiting Ireland, minus any ruins. In Cape Breton were cliffs guarding the sea along the famous Cabot Trail, a Scot-Irish distillery, signs in Gaelic everywhere, stores to find tartans and things, and many hiking and beach trails. We also visited our first cèilidh, and will start doing more of those in the future. We spent some time on Prince Edward Island, which was beautiful and warm, with lots of dunes and sandy beaches. We stayed near the Anne of Green Gables sites, and they were neat to see, as that was a favorite read of mine when younger. Now that I’m back home, it’s time to get the September newsletter finished and share what’s going on in the world of fiction that deals with ecology and climate change.
Support Us!
I’ve added a Support Us link to Dragonfly. I don’t ask for donations and will never put content behind a paywall or install ads or annoying pop-ups. But ever since our move to Nova Scotia, I’ve expanded my Dragonfly Pub business to include book review and editorial services. I’m also a publisher of rewilded fiction. So check it out!
Our News
As part of our World Eco-fiction and Turning the Tide series, I interviewed Bijal Vachharajani about her children’s books, which center around sustainability and climate change. It was fun getting to know Bijal better and virtually visiting Mumbai, India, where one of her stories takes place.
Thanks to Book Riot for linking to our site when exploring the wonderful field of BIPOC eco-fiction.
I’m going to be a mammaw, even at my totally young age! The new baby is due any day now. Some of my next writing projects will be for him. The Adventures of Finn Wilder has a tree alphabet coming soon. See “the Finn” website for more information. The series will focus on outdoor adventures, providing educational, imaginative, and funny stories that connect children to nature.
Rewilding Our Stories, our Discord community, has grown to nearly 150 readers, writers, gamers, professors, publishers, scientists, podcasters, artists, and others who are interested in putting natural worlds centrally into our stories. Remember in Game of Thrones, when Tyrion Lannister talked about stories? He said, “What unites people? Armies? Gold? Flags? Stories. There’s nothing in the world more powerful than a good story. Nothing can stop it. No enemy can defeat it.” I’m rewatching the series now, and that quote is such a powerful reminder about stories, in general, but also important ecologically oriented stories. All are invited to join at https://discord.com/invite/txgJNVg. When you join, follow Carl-Bot’s instructions and post in the Introduce Yourself channel in order to be promoted to a rank that can see the entire community.
Check our Climate and Ecological Films section for some new movies/docs out this summer and fall: the remake of Dune, of course(!), plus The Dead Don’t Die (with a remarkable ensemble cast and environmental commentary in this deadpan comedy), and Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror—a wonderful exploration of how natural landscape manifests in what’s known as folk horror.
A new post in the Backyard Wildlife series focuses on apples, whiskey, and other late-summer adventures. The apple and pear trees are great to have around this time of year. The pears are still ripening, but out of apples we’ve made apple crisp, apple cider, mulled wine with apple cider, and apple butter.
The September Indie Corner spotlight shines on Cai Emmons and her new novel Sinking Islands. In our interview, she says: Because the Earth’s warming creates different kinds of problems in different places around the globe—melting ice sheets, rising sea levels, droughts, more powerful storms, etc.—I incorporated characters from several countries to touch on that variety. I think fiction can play a useful role in bringing questions to the table that prompt conversation. And conversation is always a starting point for change.
In Turning the Tide is news about Piers Torday’s newest novel, Before the Wild. Also, Kimberly Christensen reviews Eric Smith’s The Girl and the Grove.
I recently spoke with Yanas Chewns, of Geekoscopy, about Dragonfly.eco and the concept of eco-fiction. Thanks so much to Yanas!
In 2015, I ran a short-story contest, first focusing on Canadian writers and then, due to such a big response, expanded to around the world. Because of so many wonderful submissions, I published an anthology titled Winds of Change: Short Stories About Our Climate. This book is still being taught in classrooms, so it is going into a second edition. I recently revealed the new cover.
In Other News
Dune is coming October 1. Check out the trailer.
The New York Times has an article about Bewilderment, coming September 21, by Richard Powers, author of The Overstory. Once again, Powers writes about the climate crisis. “If you look at contemporary fiction, the stories that these books tell have no agency except humans,” the author said.
Love My Books’ September newsletter spotlights several children’s books that take action on climate change.
Several new and upcoming novels look pretty awesome and exciting. Here are some we love or are looking forward to: Matrix by Lauren Groff, The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak, Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney, The Body Scout by Lincoln Michel, Harrow by Joy Williams, Dreamtime by Venetia Welby, Bewilderment by Richard Powers, and Darklands by Arnav Das Sharma.
Pedro Neves Marques at E-flux Journal speaks to Anishinaabe cultural critic Grace Dillon, who talks about key concepts within Indigenous-led science fiction and offers a genealogy of the term “Indigenous Futurisms.”
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, which goes back to 2015.
List of eco/climate films and documentaries
Eco-fiction links and resources
Book database (with nearly 900 titles)
Turning the Tide: The Youngest Generation (fiction aimed toward children, teens, and young adults)
Indie Corner: New as of mid-2020, we give a hats off to authors who publish independently
Backyard Wildlife: A new-ish 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. Recently they’ve made me a core writer for their team, and I’m both honored and grateful. Look for my “Wild Authors” series there.
Copyright 2024 Mary Woodbury