From the world of Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls comes the historical novel based on the life of Dr. Wangari Maathai, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist from Kenya. Wangari lives in a magical place in rural Kenya where the soil is rich for planting, the trees abundant, and the […]
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A Diary in the Age of Water, Nina Munteanu
Reviewed by Mary Woodbury Nina Munteanu’s newest novel, A Diary in the Age of Water, deftly follows four generations of women fighting for—and exploring scientifically, spiritually, poetically, and philosophically—water. Lynna’s mother Una and daughter Hilde understand water scientifically, but Hilde, influenced by her love-of-life Hanna, often dips into pseudoscience, which […]
Read MoreItaly Part I: Davide Sapienza, Elena Maffioletti, Tiziano Fratus
Click here to return to the series In August, I kick off two parts of a feature that heads to Italy to talk with eco-authors there. Thanks to Antonia Santopietro for her collaboration on these features. Together we planned this article, which became big enough to break into two parts […]
Read MoreMexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia
It’s difficult to highlight the eco-horror in this one without spoiling the twist, but suffice it to say, the Doyles have a hefty supernatural secret. In Mexican Gothic, the horror isn’t in nature turning against people but is in the way that extraction of natural resources helps entrench colonial powers […]
Read MoreStatement of Solidarity
Introductory Resources: Black Lives Matters website Nnedi Okorafor’s article on Afro- vs. Africanfuturism #publishingpaidme hashtag More on #publishingpaidme Lovis Geier’s introduction into Black authors and trends in the field of eco-fiction Artists & Climate Change’s new series on Black Artists and Storytellers on the Climate Crisis My article at Medium […]
Read MoreLimbo: A Novel about Jamaica, Esther Figueroa
Flora Smith, Jamaican scientist and head of tiny NGO Environment Now, dedicates her life to getting Jamaicans to care about the natural environment. At the opening of Limbo, Flora is confronted by the nagging reality of not having enough money to keep her organization afloat. When sand is stolen from […]
Read MoreBackyard Wildlife – Planting Trees
Back to Series A lot of stuff has happened since last month. Between May and June, the black flies have come out in big numbers. Crickets began to sing at night–a sound that I love and which I grew up with but never heard during my years on the west […]
Read MoreWaste Tide, Chen Qiufan
Click here to return to the series In June, we travel to a fictional place in China called Silicon Isle, based on the real town of Guiyu, in the Chaoyang district of Guangdong province. Author Chen Qiufan takes us there with his novel Waste Tide. I am grateful to Chen […]
Read MoreBackyard Wildlife – There’s Something in the Water
Back to Series I’m finally here, near Halifax, land of many forests and lakes. Flying into the airport I felt both worried about my multi-city flight across the country during a pandemic but was also thrilled to see a land of plenty, seemingly. My writing room overlooks the back yard, […]
Read MoreA New Series – Backyard Wildlife
Back to Series Note that due to the coronavirus and not being able to really travel the province as much as we’ve hoped, I’ve renamed this series Backyard Wildlife, with the idea that on occasion when we do get to travel around the province, we can still consider that our […]
Read MoreDisappearing Earth: A Novel, Julia Phillips
Click here to return to the series This month’s spotlight goes to a country not showcased before in the world eco-fiction series: Russia, specifically the Kamchatka peninsula, which dips down from the far eastern coastline of the country and lies between the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea. It […]
Read MoreShadow Flicker, Melissa Volker
Click here to return to the series About the Book It’s coming on winter, yet I’m heading into warm sunshine, surf, and sand–with my mind freshly ensconced in Melissa Volker’s novel Shadow Flicker (Karavan Press, 2019), which immersed me into beautiful east South African beaches and surfing life. Despite the […]
Read MoreTop Ten Ecologically Oriented Novels & Films of the Decade
Welcome to the first day of December in a changing world. No blue hinges the sky. It’s all gray and cold and still as I write. A soft snow begins to fall. Cedars stand like sentinels. Crows call to each other. Grass is still green but covered in frost. I […]
Read MoreAerovoyan, P.L. Tavormina
On planet Turaset, droughts ravage farmlands, cyclones rip through coastal cities, and with every barrel of oil the combustion industry pumps from the ground, the climate worsens. Alphonse has just refused a council seat because taking it means serving that rapacious industry. He leaves the city to seek solace in […]
Read MoreFun Experiment: AI Writing Our Stories
I read an interesting article at LitHub yesterday that used an on online AI-bot to write more of some of the world’s classic novels based upon first sentences. I decided to use the same Transformer tool to see what its response would be to some of my favorite eco-fiction stories, […]
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