Over coming weeks we'll have a series of mini interviews ("minterviews" if you will) with some of the awesome writers in our forthcoming Ecopunk! (check it out on kickstarter http://kck.st/2xGeJ9x)
Next up is Matthew Chrulew. Matthew is a research fellow at Curtin University. He co-edited the book Extinction Studies: Stories of Time, Death, and Generations (Columbia UP). His short stories have appeared in Cosmos, Aurealis, Canterbury 2100, The Worker’s Paradise, Macabre and The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy & Horror. His novella The Angælien Apocalypse (Twelfth Planet Press) was shortlisted for an Aurealis Award.
1. Tell us a little about your Ecopunk! story, and the inspiration behind it.
Well, as the story's protagonist, an artist, says, "It's hard to be too inspired by extinction." But still, we seek a way to respond. I found my scholarly work helpful but insufficient. Screams of despair into the void are also insufficient, but still. I wrote this useless story.
2. What science fictional technology do you wish we had now?
I'm suspicious of the dream for a technical fix. We need the political technologies and technologies of the self that would destroy fascism and capitalism and all the other coming barbarisms.
3. With all these scary climate events happening at the moment, it's sometimes hard to see some light. What gives you the most hope for humanity and the world?
The capacity of living things to learn and repair.
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Ecopunk! - speculative tales of radical futures contains 19 optimistic tales, selected by two award-winning editors, showing how humanity can survive and flourish, despite the looming uncertainty from climate change. The incredible line-up includes some of Australia's best science fiction writers.
Over coming weeks we'll have a series of mini interviews ("minterviews" if you will) with some of the awesome writers in our forthcoming Ecopunk! (check it out on kickstarter http://kck.st/2xGeJ9x)
Next up is Emilie Collyer. Emilie's prose writing has won and been shortlisted for numerous awards including the 2012 Scarlet Stiletto 2nd overall prize and twice winning the cross-genre category prize (2012 & 2013). Her short stories have appeared in the anthologies Cosmic Vegetable (USA); Scarlet Stiletto: short stories 2013 (AUS); Thirteen Stories (AUS); and many other publications including Kill your Darlings, Cordite, Blue Dog, Torpedo, Trouble, The Big Issue, The Australian Book Review, among others. She published an illustrated book of poetry Your Looking Eyes in 2011.
1. Tell us a little about your Ecopunk! story, and the inspiration behind it.
My story weaves together a number of threads of interest. I am always on the look out for signs of hope in how we might manage to reverse damage done to the earth and live here more sustainably into the future. The remarkable qualities of fungi and various mushrooms particularly in regards to plastic, kept popping up in my reading so I wanted to write about that. In a broader thematic sense I was interested in writing about notions of redemption; whether it is ever possible to heal wounds from the past via actions in the present. My own past working in the area of drug and alcohol, plus personal experiences, raise these kinds of questions often and it felt like they were a good fit with this subject matter about radical futures and new ways of being.
2. What science fictional technology do you wish we had now?
I do wish the technology I write about in the story (the capacity for fungi to 'eat' and transform plastic into organic and nutritious material) was fully developed. My second wish is not so much about technology as the way we harness and approach technology and that is my perhaps naive but fervent belief that if all people, in all societies, could be provided with a basic living wage and safe, affordable housing, then the world, humanity and technology could all evolve together towards a much more positive future.
3. With all these scary climate events happening at the moment, it's sometimes hard to see some light. What gives you the most hope for humanity and the world?
That individuals and small groups of people care and dedicate their whole lives to making change. That the next generation are alert and informed. It's terrible that they have to inherit the ecological mess we have made but they will not be complacent and nor should any of us. I also believe the human imagination is incredibly powerful and it is now encumbent on the thinkers and writers and imaginers to start creating the world (s) we want for our future. Enough totalitarian, despotic, dystopic regimes set in hellish post-apocalyptic environments. Our greatest hope is not to ignore the dark and the difficult but to work avidly and ceaselessly to transform it and create new possibilities from technology to societal structures, ecology to human rights.
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Ecopunk! - speculative tales of radical futures contains 19 optimistic tales, selected by two award-winning editors, showing how humanity can survive and flourish, despite the looming uncertainty from climate change. The incredible line-up includes some of Australia's best science fiction writers.
Over coming weeks we'll have a series of mini interviews ("minterviews" if you will) with some of the awesome writers in our forthcoming Ecopunk! (check it out on kickstarter http://kck.st/2xGeJ9x)
Next up is Corey J. White. Corey is a writer of science-fiction, horror, and other, harder to define stories. He studied writing at Griffith University on the Gold Coast, and is now based in Melbourne, Australia. His first book, Killing Gravity, is out through Tor.com Publishing. Find him on twitter at @cjwhite.
1. Tell us a little about your Ecopunk! story, and the inspiration behind it.
"Happy Hunting Ground" is a story about love, responsibility, and the lies that traditional masculinity makes us tell to others and ourselves. It's set in a self-sustaining commune whose residents hunt grocery delivery drones and redistribute the food to people outside the commune who don't have a support network of their own to rely on.
As for inspiration, I think that a lot of science fiction comes down to looking at current or future technologies and considering all the ways that people might use or abuse them. Amazon already have plans for automated drone delivery fleets, so it seemed obvious to me that they'd make a tempting target for thieves with both good and ill intentions.
2. What science fictional technology do you wish we had now?
I'm eagerly awaiting the day I can digitise my consciousness and do away with this squishy meatsack.
3. With all these scary climate events happening at the moment, it's sometimes hard to see some light. What gives you the most hope for humanity and the world?
People as individuals. Every time there's a disaster, whether natural or otherwise, there will always be people willing to risk their own lives to help others. When you look at governments, corporations, and just large groups of people in general, it can be disheartening to see the ignorance and greed that drives so much of their/our thinking, but when you get a person on their own, most of us are alright. Most of us care about the people around us, most of us want to leave the world a better place than it was when we got here. The problem is that good intentions don't count for much when you feel powerless against the larger institutions that run the world.
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Ecopunk! - speculative tales of radical futures contains 19 optimistic tales, selected by two award-winning editors, showing how humanity can survive and flourish, despite the looming uncertainty from climate change. The incredible line-up includes some of Australia's best science fiction writers.
Over coming weeks we'll have a series of mini interviews ("minterviews" if you will) with some of the awesome writers in our forthcoming Ecopunk! (check it out on kickstarter http://kck.st/2xGeJ9x)
Next up is Claire McKenna. Claire is a writer from Melbourne, Australia. She is a graduate of the first Clarion South Workshop, an Aurealis, Ditmar and Writer's of the Future nominee, along with several other prizes and publications.
1. Tell us a little about your Ecopunk! story, and the inspiration behind it.
This story had to be written VERY quickly, as I got a last minute request from Cat Sparks needing some content to fill a space in the anthology that a departing writer had left. So my instructions were: a 6K positive story with no other elements from any of the other accepted stories (I was given a no-no list that included drones and arcologies and weird music!) and to be submitted within a few days if possible.
Anyway, without a lot of time to dwell on what the story was actually about, I turned to that beloved and much maligned go-to for quick and non-drug assisted plotting: the fairytale retelling. (Because in a future where genetic engineering is readily accessible, one definitely shouldn’t accept a stranger’s offer of magic beans…)
2. What science fictional technology do you wish we had now?
Apart from an unlimited and massive energy source (doesn’t everyone want that?), I’d be keen on an artificial magnetosphere. Solar wind is one of the major things completely harshing our eventual colonisation of Mars. The rest… well, I just came up with a great story idea just writing this, so I’ll say no more!
3. With all these scary climate events happening at the moment, it's sometimes hard to see some light. What gives you the most hope for humanity and the world?
That as a species we’re pretty adaptable. We’re still utilising some of our first climate-change assistive technology, commonly referred to as “Fire” and “Clothes”. However as a society we will have to make some big changes on how we organise resources and production in a world where such things may no longer be readily available.
I have a feeling what comes up next will have some deep roots in Marxism, but with less ego and a greater reason to make the end result work. (Cue Simpsons .gif of Zombie Lenin smashing his way out of his glass casket!)
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Ecopunk! - speculative tales of radical futures contains 19 optimistic tales, selected by two award-winning editors, showing how humanity can survive and flourish, despite the looming uncertainty from climate change. The incredible line-up includes some of Australia's best science fiction writers.
Over coming weeks we'll have a series of mini interviews ("minterviews" if you will) with some of the awesome writers in our forthcoming Ecopunk! (check it out on kickstarter http://kck.st/2xGeJ9x)
Next up is Jason Nahrung. Jason's work is often set in Australia and invariably darkly themed. His most recent books are the seaside Gothic Salvage (Twelfth Planet Press) and outback vampire duology Blood and Dust and The Big Smoke (Clan Destine Press). A PhD candidate in creative writing at The University of Queensland, the former Queenslander lives in Ballarat with his wife, the writer Kirstyn McDermott.
1. Tell us a little about your Ecopunk! story, and the inspiration behind it.
"Today Home" combines a couple of issues. The primary one is the dislocation of people in low-lying islands and coastal areas and the mass migration this will cause. We're already seeing this happen, not to mention those being pushed across borders by drought and famine. This bumps into Australia's anti-refugee policy and the notion that although our country is a contributor to climate change, we don't have a role to play in trying ameliorate it or help those disadvantaged by it. And the third strand is the moronic push for the Adani (et al) coal mine in the Galilee, against all economic and environmental sense. The aim was to show that bad decisions like the Adani mine can be turned around, that there are other options, and also to suggest that, although some things that are lost cannot be replaced, there might still be a way to keep a community and culture intact. There are many Australians who will relate to the disruption caused when a culture that is firmly anchored in place is forced to leave that place -- indeed, faces the destruction of that place. If it's too late to prevent that loss, then the least we can do is try to help -- and stop making the situation worse.
2. What science fictional technology do you wish we had now?
Sticking to environmental themes, on a personal level, a passenger jet that doesn't cause environmental grief -- I love planes, I love flying, I love travel. On a broader level, some big scrubbers to haul some of the greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere would be ace.
3. With all these scary climate events happening at the moment, it's sometimes hard to see some light. What gives you the most hope for humanity and the world?
When you look at the federal governments in Australia and America, and hear the corporations advocating for more fracking and more coal-fired stations, it's easy to despair. But then you look at the communities, the councils, the state governments, and those national governments that actually are doing somthing to improve things, well, that's where the hope is. We're seeing the rise of social justice, of environmental justice, a repositioning of humans and the non-human world with a goal of some kind of equilibrium, and there's hope for a more inclusive and healthy world.
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Ecopunk! - speculative tales of radical futures contains 19 optimistic tales, selected by two award-winning editors, showing how humanity can survive and flourish, despite the looming uncertainty from climate change. The incredible line-up includes some of Australia's best science fiction writers.
Over coming weeks we'll have a series of mini interviews ("minterviews" if you will) with some of the awesome writers in our forthcoming Ecopunk! (check it out on kickstarter http://kck.st/2xGeJ9x)
First up is Rivqa Rafael. Rivqa is a freelance editor and writer based in Sydney. She started writing speculative fiction well before earning degrees in science and writing, although they have probably helped. Her editorial specialties are health and science in all forms (magazines, books, academia and custom publications); she also writes reviews and articles.
1. Tell us a little about your Ecopunk! story, and the inspiration behind it.
I've wanted to set a story in Far-North Queensland since travelling there for the solar eclipse in 2012, and it seemed the perfect setting for my guerrilla scientists, who are trying to continue life-saving research with no funding or infrastructure. I enjoy writing about the nitty-gritty side of science, and this story fits into that theme pretty neatly.
2. What science fictional technology do you wish we had now?
Matter transmitters. I'd love to be able to instantly visit friends around the world. I'd like to think it would be better for the environment than flying, although I might need to ask Sean Williams about that.
3. With all these scary climate events happening at the moment, it's sometimes hard to see some light. What gives you the most hope for humanity and the world?
I'm a pessimist by nature, so it is hard! But I take heart in every act of kindness in the face of hardship, especially when it comes from young people. We're continually told that young people are lazy and selfish but I don't see that at all. It might be cheesy, but I think Whitney said it best: "I believe the children are our are future."
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Ecopunk! - speculative tales of radical futures contains 19 optimistic tales, selected by two award-winning editors, showing how humanity can survive and flourish, despite the looming uncertainty from climate change. The incredible line-up includes some of Australia's best science fiction writers.
There are 10 days left in our awesome Ecopunk! kickstarter! We are 36% of the way!
The book is looking great. The initial layout has been completed, and we'r just waiting for September 17 to finalise the contents (all kickstarter backers before then will get their name in the book!)
We're also doing a very very limited run of hardcovers for Ecopunk! There will be no retail hardcover edition, the only way to get one of these beautiful books is to pre-order through kickstarter.
Check out our progress at http://kck.st/2xGeJ9x
We've set up a kickstarter to spead the word about Ecopunk! Order your ebook or paperback here, or get a pre-order exclusive copy of the limited hardcover. The hardcover will not be available for general retail, only by pre-order. You can also get a copy of the awesome Ecopunk! souvenir hoodie! Check it out at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/499651181/ecopunk-speculative-tales-of-radical-futures-antho and help us make this awesome book happen!
The kickstarter runs until Friday 22 September.
Cover artwork is by Peg Hewitt (pegsplaytime.blogspot.com.au).
Ecopunk! - speculative tales of radical futures contains 19 optimistic tales, selected by two award-winning editors, showing how humanity can survive and flourish, despite the looming uncertainty from climate change. The incredible line-up includes some of Australia's best science fiction writers.
Adam Browne, “The Radiolarian Violin"
Matthew Chrulew, “Future Perfect”
Emilie Collyer, “From the Dark”
Jason Fischer, “Milk and Honey”
Tom Guerney, “The Mangrove Maker”
Claire McKenna, “Mr. Mycelium”
R. Jean Mathieu, “The City Sunk, the City Risen”
D.K. Mok, “The Wandering Library”
Jason Nahrung, “The Today Home”
Ian Nichols, “First Flight”
Shauna O'Meara, “Island Green”
Rivqa Rafael, “Trivalent”
Jane Rawson, “The Right Side of History”
Jane Routley, “The Scent of Betrayal"
Andrew Sullivan, “The Butterfly Whisperer”
Janeen Webb, “Monkey Business”
Corey J. White, “Happy Hunting Ground”
Tess Williams, “Broad Church”
Marian Womack, “Pink Footed”
Ecopunk! will be published in October 2017 by Ticonderoga Publications. Keep an eye on our website for more news.
We're really pleased to be able to reveal the cover of Liz Grzyb and Cat Sparks' forthcoing Ecopunk! anthology.
The artwork is by Peg Hewitt (pegsplaytime.blogspot.com.au).
Ecopunk! - speculative tales of radical futures contains 19 optimistic tales, selected by two award-winning editors, showing how humanity can survive and flourish, despite the looming uncertainty from climate change. The incredible line-up includes some of Australia's best science fiction writers.
Adam Browne, “The Radiolarian Violin"
Matthew Chrulew, “Future Perfect”
Emilie Collyer, “From the Dark”
Jason Fischer, “Milk and Honey”
Tom Guerney, “The Mangrove Maker”
Claire McKenna, “Mr. Mycelium”
R. Jean Mathieu, “The City Sunk, the City Risen”
D.K. Mok, “The Wandering Library”
Jason Nahrung, “The Today Home”
Ian Nichols, “First Flight”
Shauna O'Meara, “Island Green”
Rivqa Rafael, “Trivalent”
Jane Rawson, “The Right Side of History”
Jane Routley, “The Scent of Betrayal"
Andrew Sullivan, “The Butterfly Whisperer”
Janeen Webb, “Monkey Business”
Corey J. White, “Happy Hunting Ground”
Tess Williams, “Broad Church”
Marian Womack, “Pink Footed”
Ecopunk! will be published in October 2017 by Ticonderoga Publications. Keep an eye on our website for more news.
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Ticonderoga Publications
21st Century Australian Speculative Fiction
PO Box 29 Greenwood WA 6924 Australia