MONTHLY BLOGPOST

I live in a lush green pocket of the city. Monsoons make it even more verdant, inviting hitherto unknown bird species to my window sill, and which only leave me so I can enjoy the abundant joyous theatre above: rain clouds dancing to a unique rumbling, and then the bounty of rain itself. This extravagance of nature fills me with gratitude. Of course, poetry comes to mind first. Emily Dickinson’s ‘Summer Shower‘ is a favorite. Discovered a bunch of new Indian poetry about the rains recently. To celebrate our Mother Planet, and since World Environment Day was this month, let this blogpost be about climate stories.

Environmental beauty as a classical literary expression, whenever sincerely attempted, offers exquisite results. However, there’s no denying that we are in the times of doomscrolling, and it is rare to find stories about nature and climate in a good sense. Narratives tend to roll towards an unknown uncertainity. The fear is definitely not unfounded. Nature fiction is important, and a bit of alarm and caution is perhaps unavoidable, and somewhat expected. “Somewhere in the north a block of ice slipped free and gave itself over to the arms of the ocean. The waters rising and swimming across the miles, their bloated swell a hammer against the cliff, taking the house, weatherboarded room and all, as a sacrifice.” writes Andrew Leach (The Climate Change Blues) to raise the pitch of climate urgency. Love Hibah Shabkhez micro: “nice weather for them is not nice weather for me”. You may read “Woodland” (Guernica) which takes a different spin. “Shapes of Outliers” (Claw & Blossom, own work) paints a dystopian picture, so does “Delicate” (50wordstories, own work).

If you broadly classify stories themed around environment and climate, you’ll see there are three major types: 1. Atmospheric, bordering on a paean, largely unpretentious; 2. Classical but with unexpected elements; and 3. Climate Emergency/Dystopian. The last type is what we call “Cli-fi”, coined by the environmental activist Dan Bloom around 2008, they caution their audience about the world to come. Whichever type, environmental fiction is thus, always, very heartfelt and resonant. I find them veering towards prayer and appeal. To be perfectly crafted, it requires:

a) collating the different sources of information, b) emerging consequences (as reported and experienced), and c) their extrapolation into the future.

I feel the more personal a story the more impactful it becomes. Moreover, it is the writer’s choice whether they want to be alarmist or would rather keep the window open for a sustainable future plan.

PROMPTS

DIFFICULTY LEVEL 1: Focus on one energy project in your area, analyze the emission patterns/ecological consequences, show how it is going to look in twenty years from now.

DIFFICULTY LEVEL 2: Zoom into a particular type of damage to the environment, for example: glaciers melting, forest fires, or drought. Then zoom out to its cause from the perspective of an affected community, tracing it backwards.

DIFFICULTY LEVEL 3: Use the jacket of an interview where two opposite sides (planet vs humans/corporate vs consumer/climate activist vs big business) are on a discussion table immediately after they’ve realized a climate emergency is about to take place

SUBMISSION SPOTLIGHT [Here I list magazines & submission windows writers may not know about. These are FREE TO SUBMIT and OPEN on JULY 1]

Bluestem (submissions cap), Pidgeonholes, Raleigh Review, Moss Puppy Mag, SolarPunk Mag, Thanatos Review, Confluence Lab (themed)

WORKSHOP NEWS

Sage Tyrtle will be interviewing me LIVE on Saturday July 1, 7:30 PM IST, and everyone’s welcome! Attendees get to ask questions & I get to spend 30 minutes with you all 😀

WRITING-TIP OF THE MONTH

Submit early in publications where submissions are not rolled, that is, each issue has a specific reading period. This is the case because as readers and editors start reading they typically keep setting aside pieces that are better than the rest, and usually, at regular intervals there’s a team meeting in which decisions on those pieces are made. If some spots in the next issue have already been taken, you’re only vying for the remaining spots when you submit late in the open reading period, meaning your probability/chance happens to (theoritically at least) diminish. This is however not the case in places where subs are always open and issues are being curated perpetually.