S212.
Green Shoots from Old Roots: Writing Realist Ecofiction
Saturday, March 26, 2022
3:20 pm to 4:35 pm
Realist, character-driven ecofiction and cli-fi play a special role in the urgent dialogue on humanity’s culpability for and response to the desecration of the natural world. We discuss how and to what effect we ground such stories in history and science, center nonhuman characters and natural settings, negotiate despair and hope, harness environmental messaging to character and plot, and approach the global- and generational-scale changes that drive speculative ecofiction.
Participants
Anne Coray’s novel Lost Mountain is a love story inspired by the Pebble Mine project. Author of three poetry collections, her work has appeared in North American Review, Kestrel, Poetry, and AQR. She has received fellowships from the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the Rasmuson Foundation.
Helon Habila is a professor of creative writing at George Mason University in Virginia. He studied at the University of Jos in Nigeria and the University of East Anglia, UK. His novels include Travelers and Oil on Water.
Susan M. Gaines’s books include the novels Accidentals and Carbon Dreams and the science book Echoes of Life. She currently serves as the international author liaison for the Fiction Meets Science Program at the Hanse Institute for Advanced Study in Germany.
Julie Carrick Dalton's (she/her) debut novel, Waiting for the Night Song, was a CNN, Newsweek, Parade, and USA Today Most Anticipated 2021 book. A Tin House and Bread Loaf alum, Julie owns a small farm in rural New Hampshire and speaks/teaches about fiction that engages climate crisis.
Catherine Bush's five novels include the climate-themed Blaze Island (2020), a Globe & Mail Best Book. “Writing the Real,” an essay on writing climate fiction, will appear in Best Canadian Essays 2021. She is the coordinator of the University of Guelph Creative Writing MFA in Toronto.
