Saturday, January 2, 2016

16 cli-fi things to look forward to in 2016

16!
Sixteen ''cli fi'' things to look forward to in  Two Thousand Sixteen

Hot links included!


INTRO: As the year turns, and 2016 arrives with hot air and cold air blowing this way and that, here are a few things in store for the coming 365 days, with cli-fi
as a social and literary and media galvanizer.


In 2016, clifi will continue to grow its galvanizing buds, as the meme spreads its wings and reaches into unknown places in the four corners of the globe,  six if we count Antarctica and the Arctic as important global corners, too. And we do! 


As a galvanizing force, with literary powers still unfolding in several languages, in addition to English and Finnish and French,  cli-fi will make more inroads in 2016 and find safe harbor in Australia,  North America and Europe.  And Africa, and Asia are coming aboard too.


As a global galvanizer,  cli-fi has work to do,  academic conferences to attend, and in the words of Dr. Seuss... "Oh the, places you will go!"


The dictionary defines a galvanizer as something that can rouse, stir, electrify, fire, spur, or animate a discussion or an issue. That's cli-fi, for sure. It can also serve to startle into sudden activity, to stimulate.


1. [APRIL] - Dating the Anthropocene Era: An Oslo meeting in late April 2016 will set the stage but the Anthropocene Working Group [AWG] only issues a 'recommendation' and then later on the wider stratigraphic community then weighs AGW rec (and the final decison probably won't come for a long while to come). [Hat tip to Andy Revkin at the NYT DOT EARTH blog for this] info.


2. [FEBRUARY ]  -- io9 editor Charlie Jane Anders publishes her debut novel titled
''All the Birds in the Sky'' -- what people are already calling a stunning story about the end of the world, and the beginning of the future. In a tweet to Scott Thill, she noted that "there is some 'cli-fi 'in my new novel too."
The book is described as blending literary fantasy and science fiction, telling the story of the decades-long, on-and-off romance between a sorceress and a computer genius, beginning in childhood and proceeding against a background of increasingly catastrophic climate change. Tor Books editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden said:

“It’s great. It’s a science fiction and fantasy novel. It’s about magic and technology and the great myths that try to control us and the small ways we fight free. It’s not like anything else. As a friend of mine who read it said, ‘I suddenly realized I was reading a kind of storytelling that’s younger than I am.’

 
3. [TBA] -- Scott Thill, former Wired reporter and daily #CliFi blogger on his Twitter feed, author of an overview on his take on Cli-Fi in Cinema at the Huffington Post in November 2014, titled ''Cli-Fi is real'' publishes his long-awaited nonfiction overview of the entire cli-fi meme, from A to Z.]


4. [DECEMBER] The Cli-Fi Movie Awards announce the winners of the annual awards program at the end of December 2016.

NOTE: One of the movies in contention already is the French cli-fi movie ''EXPIRE'' by director Ms. Magali Magistry: ''Le réchauffement climatique au cœur d’un film de SF français.'' For an interview  with the director Magali Magistry see, in English here and in French here.



5. [ALL YEAR] -- A variety of ''cli-fi'' classes, hosted in classrooms across the country, turn 2016 into ''THE YEAR OF CLI-FI IN ACADEMIA,'' with courses in full swing in spring, summer and  fall semesters at Pomona, Tufts, Holyoke Community College, Brooklyn College, Middlebury, Vanderbilt, Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth and over 50 other colleges and universities. Expect a news report on this in the Chronicle of Higher Education in Washington DC as well. UPDATE: http://northwardho.blogspot.tw/2015/12/middlebury-college-spring-semester-cli.html

6. [APRIL] --Arizona State University announces the $10,000 award winner (and two runners-up) in the ASU cli-fi short story contest. judged primarily by cli-fi writer Kim Stanley Robinson and a panel of ASU experts as well. [Announcements expected in April 2016.]

7.  [FEBRUARY] -- As the Oscars telecast gets underway in February, the alternative Cli-Fi Movie Awards announces its winners for the 2015 awards program, with "Taklub" by Brillante Mendoza in the Philippines taking the gongs for best picture, best actor, best screenplay, best director and best child actor.

8. [DECEMBER] -- ''GEOSTORM,'' a cli-fi movie set for a December national release, puts Hollywood in the cli-fi mood again, with the producers thinking "this could be something big."


9.  [TBA] -- A new novel, his third in a stellar career, by cli-fi novelist Nathaniel Rich (''Odds Against Tomorrow'' - [reviwed by NPR on April 20, 2013]) will be released in 2016 from FSG, his usual publisher, with the book carrying with it undercurrents of cli-fi underpinning the story, according to Rich's lecture at Vanderbilt University last fall.


10.  [SEPTEMBER 1st]  Meg Little Reilly debuts her ''cli-fi'' novel "WE ARE UNPREPARED" and it joins a crop of earlier cli-fi novels from Edan Lupecki, Claire Vaye Watkins and Emily St. John Mandel. See the author's website for continued updates: www.meglittlereilly.com
The novel was agented by John Silbersack at Trident Media and successfully brought to MIRA books, an imprint of Harlequin, which is owned by HarperCollins, one of the ''Big 5'' Publishing Giants, for a September 1, 2016 pub date. [SYNOPSIS:] An apocalyptic storm and its ensuing damage cause a troubled 30-something couple to re-evaluate their marriage. The novel relates the story of two self-assured and polished 30-somethings in the aftermath of a massive storm and the damage it causes


11.  [APRIL] -- An international academic workshop about cli-fi in April 22-23 in Germany gathers academics from around the world who are studying the rise of cl-fi novels and movies. Details  here via http://northwardho.blogspot.tw/2015/12/cli-fi-academic-workshop-taking-shape.html and exploring these questions:

How do literary narratives influence societal perceptions of climate change (or what is their potential for doing so)? What distinguishes the fictional mediation of scientific knowledge from other forms of science communication?
  • What is the position of cli-fi in literary, scientific, and public discourses? How is this position perceived or promoted by the authors, and how is it perceived in different contexts?
  • How is cli-fi related to debates that regard climate change as a “grand challenge“ of contemporary society?
  • Which narrative and aesthetic strategies are pursued in the literary depiction of climate change? How do such strategies affect non-literary discourses on the future of society?
  • Are factual and fictional aspects of the climate change discourse ''reframed'' by cli-fi? How are scientific and literary cli-fi novels and movies related?

  • 12.  [FEBRUARY] -- On February 17-18,  the University of Florida runs its second international cli-fi semimar and workshop with author panels and lectures, under the direction of Professor Terry Harpold. Titled “Imagining Climate Change: Science and Fiction in Dialogue,” contact Terry Harpold or Alioune Sow for details at their respective university email addresses.

    13.  [TBA] -- Producer and screenwriter Marshall Herskovitz, a leading climate activist in Hollywood, sets up a production process to greenlight more ''cli-fi'' movies and TV dramas in Tinseltown.

    14.  [Summer] -- Reporters Elizabeth Kolbert, Michelle Nujhuis, Andrew Revkin and others  will be reporting on the ongoing dating the Anthrocene Era drama in the pages of the New Yorker, The New York Times and Motherboard, with reporters at Grist, Salon, and Slate addding their takes to the reportage as well. Has the Anthronpocene Epoch arrived and does it have a start date? Answers coming in 2016.

    15.  [January-February issue of WIREs] -- A comprehensive and fascinating overview of 60 movies and TV films in the past 10 years by American film critic Michael Svoboda is published for public viewing and titled "Cli-fi on the screen(s): patterns inthe representations of climatechange in fictional films." NOTE: In mid-January, GWU Professor Svoboda will write a piece for an online platform to coincide with the announcement of the nominations for the 2016 Academy Awards (January 14, 2016). In that piece he will draw on the WIREs Cli-Fi on the Screen article, by which time one hopes the JanFeb issue will be open access. Since it is still behind a paywall, here is a brief peek at the 20-page article, surely one the most important cli-fi movie overview ever written.
    [ How to cite the article: WIREs Clim Change 2016, 7:43–64. doi: 10.1002/wcc.381 ]
     

    16. [TBA] --Public Radio (NPR) interviews Oregon author Gregg Kleiner about his captivating children's picture book titled "Please Don't Paint Our Planet Pink!" -- which imagines a scenario whereby the usually colorless CO2 which in massive abundarnce due to man-made global warming is now helping to overheat our planet. By imaging CO2 as a pink gas, the story serves as a powerful wake-up tool for children and their adults.

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    17.  Bonus item: Australian literary critic and novelist James Bradley posts a few more blogs and oped pieces throughout the year about ''cli-fi'' in the grand scheme of things, from sci-fi to cli-fi to all things literary and discussing the meme with all the power of an insightful media critic and public intellectual.



    ===============================================

    OUT-TRO:

    As the year turns, and 2016 arrives with hot air and cold air blowing this way and that, above are just a few things in store for the coming 365 days, with cli-fi
    as a social and literary and media galvanizer.


    In 2016, clifi will continue to grow its galvanizing tentacles, as the meme spreads its wings and reaches into unknown places in the four corners of the globe,  six if we count Antarctica and the Arctic as important global corners, too.


    As a galvanizing force, with literary powers still unfolding in several languages, in addition to English and Finnish and French,  cli-fi will make,more inroads in 2016 and find safe harbor in Australia,  North America and, Europe.  And Africa, and Asia are coming aboard too.
    As a global galvanizer,  cli-fi has work to do,  conferences to attend, and in the words of Dr. Seuss... "Oh the, places you will go!"


    The dictionary defines a galvanizer as someone who can rouse, stir, electrify, fire, spur, or animate a discussion or an issue. That's cli-fi, for sure. It can also serve to startle into sudden activity, to stimulate.


    2016 BOOK REVIEW of 2015 NOVEL FOR ADDED VALUE:
    BOOK REVIEW: In ‘'Gold Fame Citrus,'’ nascent genre of ''cli-fi'' looks to California
     
     

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    2 comments:

    Teia Maman said...

    For the scoop on the upcoming French cli-fi movie "Expire," here's a more direct link: http://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm=243821.html

    and for an INTW with the director Magali Magistry:
    http://www.allocine.fr/film/court-metrage/news-18649308/

    These are in French...

    DANIELBLOOM said...

    Thank you, Ke'a. I will add those links to main post above. Merci beaucoup.