Metamorphosis: Climate Fiction for a Better Future

Otherworldly but remarkably familiar, ancestral but firmly rooted in alternate futures, these 12 innovative stories — winners of the Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors contest organized by Grist, and now featured in the brand-new anthology Metamorphosis — offer a glimpse of a future built on sustainability, inclusivity, and justice. Join Grist, the independent climate newsroom, to celebrate Metamorphosis, an anthology of 12 climate-fiction short stories that illuminate hopeful and abundant climate futures. Grist has engaged writers from across the globe to envision the next 180 years of climate progress, community-oriented solutions, and intersectional world-building. In Metamorphosis, you’ll find stories that provide flickers of hope, even joy, and serve as a springboard for exploring how fiction can help create a better reality.

Tory Stephens will moderate this conversation on the roles of imagination, creative world-building, and hopeful futures in the work to build and support today’s climate solutions. Speakers will include Imagine 2200 winning authors Louis Evans (A Seder in Siberia), Susan Kaye Quinn (Seven Sisters), and Jamie Liu (To Labor for the Hive), with readings from their stories as interpreted by Eric Lockley.

FEATURED SPEAKERS

Louis Evans (he/him) is a writer living and working in Brooklyn, New York. His science fiction has appeared in Vice, the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Nature: Futures. His climate fiction has appeared in Analog Science Fiction & Fact, Little Blue Marble, Fusion Fragment, and more. He’s online at evanslouis.com.

Susan Kaye Quinn (she/her) is an environmental engineer turned science-fiction writer currently residing in Pittsburgh and dreaming of a better future through her hopepunk climate fiction. Her self-published novels have been optioned for virtual reality, translated into German and French, and featured in several anthologies.

Jamie Liu (she/they) is a writer, climate resilience planner, and climate activism volunteer. She was born and raised in the San Gabriel Valley, California, and currently lives in New York City. Imagine 2200’s To Labor for the Hive is their first published story.

Tory Stephens (he/him) creates opportunities that transform organizations and shift culture. He is a resource generator and community builder for social justice issues, people, and movements. He currently works at Grist as the climate fiction creative manager, and uses storytelling to champion climate justice and imagine green, clean, and just futures. In another life he owned a kick-butt streetwear company, and he would have gotten away with eating the last cookie too, if it weren't for his three meddling kids.

Eric Lockley (he/him) is an award-winning writer, actor and producer. Centering joy and healing in his works, Lockley’s projects range from his comedic talk show Percy’s Theater This n Dat to his Afrofuturist plays Sweet Chariot and We The People (Not the Bots), which imagine liberated futures centering Black folks’ resilience. @iamericlockley