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Hi Uprooters! I’m Tory Stephens, the climate fiction creative manager at Grist. I'm writing to you from Ayer, a small railroad town in Massachusetts.
My main role is to help shape Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors, Grist’s climate fiction short story contest, into something writers want to write for and readers want to read. Imagine 2200 asks writers to envision the coming decades of climate progress in engaging stories that bring readers into those future worlds. A few days ago, we announced our 2024 winners and released 12 brand-new climate fiction stories celebrating visions of climate progress.
After a few years working on Imagine 2200, I’ve come away with a strong belief: fictional stories are an underutilized climate solution. A good story sparks the imagination, fuels dialogue, spurs people to action, and can counter false narratives.
Recognizing the untapped power of storytelling, we see Imagine 2200 as a platform for hope and imagination. We seek stories that showcase creative climate solutions, empower communities, and uplift voices from the corners of the world most impacted by climate change. Our goal? To weave a tapestry of vibrant futures where clean air, green landscapes, and a just society are not just dreams but blueprints for a new beginning. These stories are not afraid to explore the challenges ahead, but they also offer us a glimpse of a brighter future, where we are working together to build a more sustainable and just world.
Many of you are well aware that marginalized communities are disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis, and often their voices and stories are less likely to be told in mainstream narratives. This happens in the literary space as well.
Imagine 2200 aims to counter this reality by ensuring our climate stories and characters represent diverse voices, authentic cultures, and the intersectional reality of the climate crisis. An Imagine story is, of course, about the climate crisis and climate solutions, but is often interwoven with other systems of oppression – racism, sexism, classism, and more – revealing these connections and demonstrating how climate justice is inseparable from fighting for broader social justice.
Sure, the rising sea levels might be a backdrop, but the story truly takes flight when it explores a family's intergenerational cultural knowledge, a young person's quest to be accepted in their community, or a community's ingenious repurposing of abandoned infrastructure. By focusing on the human element, we remind ourselves that even in the face of crisis, our capacity for innovation, adaptation, and care endures.
We hope that Imagine stories stand as a beacon against doomsday fatigue, rejecting the tired trope of dystopian wastelands and offering instead a kaleidoscope of vibrant, hopeful futures. We hope these challenge the notion that marginalized communities are merely victims of climate change and showcase their power as agents of change, storytellers, and the very architects of the solutions we desperately need. And most of all, we hope these stories – diverse, inclusive, and bursting with vibrant life – are the inspiration you need to discover a blueprint for a livable tomorrow.
If you love stories with vivid characters, gripping plots, and hope-filled visions, you should check out our latest collection, featuring all the 2024 winners. Or sign up for email updates to get new stories in your inbox.
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Growing new roots 
