Conversations in Solarpunk, Climate Fiction, and Futurisms

By its nature, no one person defines solarpunk and it evolves as people join the movement. It tends towards interconnectedness, justice, mutualism, library economies, technology aligned with Nature, creating trajectories towards diverse futures, community-building, and is antithetical to fossil fuel extraction, uber-capitalism, racism, authoritarianism, fascism and the like. As a genre, solarpunk spans all other genres. In this session, four noted and diverse authors join together to discuss climate fiction, solarpunk, and futurisms. Collectively, they are members of the Climate Fiction Writers League, have written solarpunk and futurist fiction and nonfiction, and edited acclaimed anthologies in these genres. In the spirit of solarpunk and mutuality, they will ask one another questions about the work and co-create the session, weaving in examples from their work.

Alex DiFrancesco is a multi-genre writer and transmasc person (they/them) who is the author of Transmutation, All City, and Psychopomps. Their work has appeared in New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, Tin House, Pacific Standard, Eater, Brevity, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, and more. They are the winner of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for 2022. Their novel All City was the first awards finalist by a transgender author in over 80 years of the Ohioana Book Awards. They formerly served as an assistant editor for Sundress Publications in Tennessee, and currently edit LGBTQIA+ non-fiction for Jessica Kingsley Publishers. DiFrancesco lives in Philadelphia and is the human companion of a middle-aged, ill-mannered Westie named Roxy Music, Dog of Doom. https://alexdifrancesco.com/

BrightFlame (she/they) writes, teaches, and makes magic towards a just, regenerative world. In her debut novel The Working, a modern coven must thwart a looming eco-cataclysm and find the key to the bright future we need. Her short fiction is featured in Solarpunk Creatures, Bioluminescent, and Solarpunk Magazine. She’s known for her teaching in the worldwide pagan community and co-founded the Center for Sustainable Futures at Columbia University that features her workshops and nonfiction. She’s a member of the Climate Fiction Writers League, Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers, and SFWA. She lives on Lenape territory (Turtle Island/US) with a human, a forest, a labyrinth, the Fey, bees, turtles, fungi, rocks, and many other nonhumans. 

Cameron Roberson (he/him), who writes under the pen name Rob Cameron, is a teacher, linguist, and writer. He has poetry, stories, and essays, in Star*Line, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Foreign Policy Magazine, Tor.com, New Modality, Solarpunk Magazine, Clockwork Phoenix Five, and others. Daydreamer is his debut middle grade novel, and his solarpunk noir novelette comes out in Lightspeed later this year.

Phoebe Wagner (she/they) is a writer, academic, and editor of three solarpunk anthologies, including Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk & Eco-Speculation. Publishers Weekly called their novella When We Hold Each Other Up a “fresh take on climate fiction.” She holds a PhD in literature and teaches creative writing at Lycoming College. https://phoebe-wagner.com/