IMF 51648 Fiction: Cli-Fi: Climate-Change Fiction L

Instructor

Gene Pfeiffer

Class Type

Literature & Craft

Course Description

In this new world of superfires and superstorms, a sci-fi sub-genre, climate fiction (cli-fi) has become a hot zone for publishers and readers alike. Cli Fi ranges from domestic, realistic stories set in the near future (towns flooding, everyday life diminished by drought, smog smothering Chinese cities) to more swashbuckling speculative fiction (camels in the Colorado River Basin, robot-spiders servicing oil pipelines) set in a further future. Course readings are arranged by story focus on topics such as floods, droughts, pollution, the lives of children, and fate of animals. Craft readings will help develop your weekly writing exercises of brief cli-fi stories and scenes. Our authors include Nnedi Okorafor, Seanan McGuire, Sam Miller, Brooke Bollander, Nancy Kress, Lavie Tidhar, Paolo Bacigalupi, and Margaret Atwood. In the final weeks, you will select and share remarks on a cli-fi story that you admire. You will also turn in a final piece of flash fiction to be polished towards publication.