Fiction

Call for Submissions

What Blooms in Darkness: A Lunarpunk Anthology

Edited by Justine Norton-Kertson

Android Press is seeking short fiction for What Blooms in Darkness, a new anthology of lunarpunk stories exploring the people, communities, ecologies, and possibilities that thrive beyond the dominant gaze. Some forms of life reach toward the sun. Others bloom beneath moonlight, spread through the soil, grow in caves, travel through deep water, or wait quietly in places the daylight can’t reach. Darkness can be fertile. It can provide shelter, privacy, rest, mystery, beauty, resistance, and room for transformation.

​This anthology asks what becomes possible when people and communities are freed from the demand to remain constantly visible. What grows beyond surveillance? What knowledge survives underground? What relationships become possible in the quiet hours? What cultures flourish outside institutions that would exploit, suppress, assimilate, or erase them? What might the night teach us about building futures rooted in care, interdependence, ecological belonging, and liberation?

We’re looking for stories that approach darkness in ways that shatter the stereotype of darkness as a source of fear or adversity. Darkness might contain danger, grief, uncertainty, or conflict, but it can also be a habitat, a refuge, a commons, a place of healing and comfort, or the beginning of something new and exciting.

Retro, a new novel about time travel, is a tonic for readers who struggle with feeling hopeful about the future.

There is a line from Action Comics #775, spoken by Superman after being told he is living in a dream world, that I think about more than any piece of dialogue has a right to occupy my mind. He responds: “Good. Dreams save us. Dreams lift us up and transform us into something better. And on my soul, I swear that until my dream of a world where dignity, honour and justice are the reality we all share, I’ll never stop fighting. Ever.”

Superman matters because he chooses to be good when he could just as easily not. He is not interesting because he can punch through walls, fly and shoot lasers. He is interesting because he could rule the world and instead decides to help. That is not a childish fantasy. It is a moral proposition, and one that gets more radical the darker things get.

He is also, and this gets overlooked, a character defined by loss. His entire planet is gone. His birth parents are dead. He is, in the most literal sense, an orphan of a destroyed world. His response to that is not bitterness or withdrawal. It is showing up, every day, for a world that does not always return the favour.

Responding to loss with love rather than retreat is the hardest thing a person can do. I know that now.

Superman would be a solarpunk. A man powered literally by the sun, who uses that power for others, who believes that the world can be better and acts on it. Solarpunk and Superman share the same conviction. Hope is not passive. It is a choice and a discipline, and it asks more of you than despair ever does.

Superman does not protect himself from disappointment. He puts on the cape knowing he will be mocked, knowing the world will let him down, knowing that the dream of dignity, honour and justice is perpetually unfinished. He does it anyway, because giving up is worse.

The future is not guaranteed. But it is worth the fight. And the people who imagine something better, who refuse to let cynicism close the book, will be the ones who build it.

Dreams save us. I believe that. Not because I have not been paying attention. But because I have.

Nebula nominations open until 2.28! Hugo nominations now open!

BSFA: Coriander is already long-listed for the British Science Fiction Awards (voting closes 2.19)

lnk.to/BGFAwards

Ugandan writer / fillmmaker Dilmman Dila is trying to make a "dark comedy set in a solarpunk world". You can follow them on mastodon at https://mograph.social@dilmandila/

I’m making a new short film, which I’ll release on my PeerTube channel. It is a final target practice for a feature film (titled Big Tree) that I intend to shoot next year, themed on direct democracy in a near-future solarpunk world. Help me imagine this future with a donation (PayPal is preferred since other platforms take fees and then pay through PayPal). Pledge continuous support through Patreon, Ko-Fi, or LiberaPay. To use mobile money, bank transfer, or other means, get in touch! And follow me by e-mail or via RSS or on Mastodon for progress on the feature film.

The initial goal is US $2,000, which will help cover the basic costs of the shoot (see breakdown below) and other stretch goals are; about $750 for a 360 degree camera and other accessories needed in VFX, and about $500 for set constructions on locations.

Solarpunk fiction is a form of climate fiction, but by focusing on the changes we could make, it can move us past climate anxiety, says author and editor Sarena Ulibarri. She introduces us to five favourites: ranging from near-future to far-future, they present a collection of thought experiments in the ways humanity might yet choose to live.

As SolarPunk Stories has already explored, there are many shades of solarpunk. So many, I added a couple of my own to their framework. From Thrilling to Happy, Fantastical to Rooted, solarpunk is a broad concept, with space inside it for stories ranging from farming romances to survival tales, kitchen-sink dramas to action adventure.

One type of setting that reoccurs across a few short stories and tabletop games is detective fiction. This makes a lot of sense, it has a clear narrative and believable stakes within a generally utopian or protopian society. It implicitly looks at what people in that society value and find unacceptable. No wonder ‘DI Russo - SolarPunk Detective’ is the first thrilling tale from a better future to be published by SolarPunk Stories.

But can solarpunk detective fiction be noir? Here we get into competing definitions. Otto Penzler argues that though classic hard-boiled private detectives, such as Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade or Raymond Chandler’s, Philip Marlowe may bend or break the law, this is done by a protagonist with meaningful agency in pursuit of justice.

In making my case, I’ll sketch the history of various varieties of noir, while also describing recent examples of those varieties. I’ll explore examples of solarpunk detective stories and I’ll finish with discussing a few ways we might see noir in future solarpunk fiction.

Author Susan Kaye Quinn hass announced :

We're reading LOST CAUSE by Cory Doctorow

Subscribe to get links, reminders & recaps if you miss it!

Bookclub is #solarpunk community, thoughtful discussions, the kind of world I want to have!😍🌞🌿

WHEN: Sept 25th 8pm ET

Newsletter: https://www.subscribepage.com/solarpunk_bookclub

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/24691019

I’m racing-downhill excited to announce the release of my latest solarpunk novel, Neon Riders. You can discover the ebook on this indie site. It will be findable on other channels eventually.

The illustration is by Neville Dsouza.

Alia, a precocious police detective, is feverishly hunting the killer responsible for the first-ever murder in the city of Sequoia located within the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia. The city was, specifically, created for millions of climate refugees in the aftermath of a catastrophic heat wave. Then the second one happens. The only similarity between the two victims threatens the very future of Sequoia. The killer is willing to go to any lengths to avoid capture. As Alia races against time to save the city, she discovers a deadly secret which turns her life upside down. Will she solve the two murders? Will the city survive?

The author ( @tinjar@tinjar.ghost.io ) lists the following comparable novels:

Neal Stephenson’s “Termination Shock”

Kim Stanley Robinson’s “Ministry for the Future”

Steven Markley’s “The Deluge”

Jens Liljestrand’s “Even if Everything Ends”

Amitav Ghosh’s “Gun Island”

Emily St. John Mandel’s “Station Eleven”

From the book's About section :

The subscription fee is $1 per year.

The novel is being published in a serialized manner. I shall upload the latest chapter(s) on this website every week starting 1 April 2025. You will also get the latest chapter(s) in your inbox. Each week's chapter(s) would be about 2,000-4,000 words (~6-12 pages) long. Since, the first novel is about 150,000 words (~500 pages) long, it will be released over the course of a year.

If you would like to discuss the story, feel free to do so with other readers. The nice thing about the platform I am using - Ghost - is that it is “federating over ActivityPub to become part of the world’s largest publishing network.”

One of my most favorite pieces of fiction. It's not 100% solarpunk, but it's set in a much more optimistic future. It makes me think a lot about our world today and how it can be a better place.

Chapters release every so often. I can't wait until the full work is published so I can get a print copy.

For his Abu Dhabi-set science fiction graphic novel Solarblader, Emirati writer Mo Abedin focuses his speculative fiction on renewable energy, inspired by the initiatives happening in the current-day UAE. Dubbing the new subgenre "solarpunk", due to the reliance on solar energy in his version of the future, he hopes to inspire a new trend.

Sandstorm debuted the first volume of Abedin’s graphic novel titled Solarblade at this year's Middle East Film and Comic Con, which ends today. Set in an alternate-universe Abu Dhabi in 2525, it imagines the UAE capital fully reliant on solar energy, bolstered by alien technology that helps harness the full power of the sun.

The Bright Green Futures: 2024 anthology is a collection of short solarpunk stories from guests of the Bright Green Futures podcast, where we lift up stories to build a better world. These hopeful climate-fiction stories include clicky space centipedes, sentient trees, a flooded future Rio de Janeiro and characters trying to find their place in a climate-impacted world. Each story imagines a way for us to survive the future, together.

Verso’s introduction to Solarpunk was inspiring and uplifting. As someone fairly new to the sub-genre, it was easy to understand its principles and history. Verso outlines when the sub-genre was born, where it was made popular and how it contrasts from both cyberpunk and steampunk. I can safely say now that I am convinced. Solarpunk Short Stories from Many Futures is a remarkable, much-needed anthology in the current state of the world that speaks of a future with renewable energy, de-urbanisation and biomimicry.

Bridge City Media is seeking submissions for their Solarpunk Film Festival. Your movie should be 2–15 minutes long, animated or live-action and fictional. Eight finalists will be selected to screen their films at the festival.

The movies will be evaluated by a panel of guest judges and audience members, with winners announced following the final screening. The submission deadline is 16th May 2025. The festival will be held at a theater in Portland, Oregon on 22nd June 2025.

Hey everyone!

Haven't seen anyone discuss these around, so I was curious if anyone knew about them.

Personally I only liked #5 and #2; others were ok but didn't feel that much solarpunk. Let me know if you have different opinions and let's talk about them!

Science fiction writer Octavia Butler wrote in her 1993 novel "Parable of the Sower" that Feb. 1, 2025, would be a time of fires, violence, racism, addiction, climate change, social inequality and an authoritarian "President Donner."

That day is today.

Through her fiction, Butler foresaw U.S. society's direction and the potential for civil societies to collapse thanks to the weight of economic disparities and climate change — with blueprints for hope.

Afrofuturist writers today interpret Butler's work as metaphorical warnings that appear to be coming true and a call to action.

Imaginary Worlds is a show about science fiction, fantasy and other genres of speculative fiction hosted by Eric Molinsky. They have covered everything from the meteoric rise of Romantasy through to the beautiful craft behind Blue Eyed Samurai.

In 2020 they did an episode about our genre featuring two of our solarpunk sisters Sarena Ulibarri and Keisha Howard. That led to solarpunk featuring prominently as one of the highlights of the past decade by Eric in a recent Tenth Anniversary double episode for the podcast.

As part of that he shared how one listener contacted him to let her know how the episode had affected her. Morag McDonald was feeling pretty hopeless about climate change and generally down in her life. Hearing about solarpunk, about ‘a future that was hopeful and possible with real people acting to make it happen’ lifted her spirits.

Does the failure of Disney’s ‘solarpunk movie’ mean our genre is doomed to remain niche?

With its strong environmental message, diverse representation and multimillion-dollar budget, many thought Disney’s 2022 film Strange World would take solarpunk mainstream. That hope was short-lived.

This film did so poorly it is estimated to have lost Disney $197 million. This made it the worst performing film of 2022 and one of the biggest box office flops of all time.

Does this disastrous commercial performance mean that solarpunk will never reach a wider audience? Will it always be fringe? We explore the film and look at some of the explanations for why it did so badly to find out.

In this near future anthology, Solarpunk explores the many ways individuals and resilient groups can fight gentrification, expropriation, abuse and loss of identity, starting within local communities, ultimately to embrace the whole world.

Solarpunk traces a path, rough and tortuous, towards a change now perceived by many as a necessity. “Nobody will give us the future” – seem to say these short stories edited by Future Fiction's Francesco Verso. Solarpunk brings stories without borders, from across the world: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, the UK and USA. Authors are Jerri Jerreat, Ken Liu, Thomas Badlan, Ciro Faienza, Brenda Cooper, Renan Bernardo, Jennifer L. Rossman, Sarena Ulibarri, Gustavo Bondoni, Lucie Lukacovicova, Ingrid Garcia, Andrew Dana Hudson and D.K. Mok.

Ysolt awakes after a freak storm to find herself at the bottom of a ravine in the broken remains of the nomadic home that was supposed to protect her.

Author: Premee Mohamed

Imagine 2200, Grist’s climate fiction initiative, celebrates stories that offer vivid, hope-filled, diverse visions of climate progress.