RA for All: Trending: Cli-Fi Resources, Articles, and Reading Lists

Friday, February 22, 2019

Trending: Cli-Fi Resources, Articles, and Reading Lists

As I mentioned in my Reading Resolutions last month, I am the team captain of the Speculative Fiction portion of the ARRT Popular Authors List. In the role I am doing a deep dive into all areas of speculative fiction.

One of the biggest trends in this category of fiction is "Cli-Fi" or climate fiction. While most of this emerging mini-genre is SF based, novels that suppose how climate change will effect the world do blend into other genres, mostly notable horror and literary fiction. For that reason, we are not making Cli-Fi its own subgenre in the new edition of the Popular Authors list because it isn't always only under SF [and other reasons but that is too off topic for today], but we have created a few new categories beyond Horror, Science Fiction, and Fantasy under the Speculative Umbrella called "Further Genres of the Unreal" under which some Cli-Fi focused authors will fit.

But that is also getting a little off topic. The point of today's post is that for a while now I have been following Cli-Fi, the think pieces being written about it, and the numerous reading lists. Today, I wanted to compile some of those for you because they are only helping me at this point. I want to pass them on to help you both with purchasing and with rethinking some of these titles that I know you have on your shelves but that you probably don't think of as Cli-Fi [Salvage The Bones by Ward is a great example].

So here is a list of Cli-Fi resources that you can use to better understand this emerging subgenre, where it came from, where it is now, where it may go, and most importantly, why people want to read it. These links all include information that informs you about Cli-Fi and provide a list. Use them all to make displays, booktalk, and even to help you rethink a title you might not have thought fits this subgenre.