Cultivating Apocalyptic Sensibilities
A thrilling and terrifying premise differentiates climate fiction (clifi) from science fiction: the earthly tipping point is past; the apocalypse has happened. Climate fictions offer anxious, thrilling stories of radical adaptation to the unwanted badlands—and the many forms they could feasibly take. We’ll read and discuss works by authors such as Octavia E. Butler, Ursula K. Le Guin, Yun Ko-eun, Charlotte McConaghy, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Karen Russell. We will use writing prompts to cultivate our own fiction with apocalyptic sensibilities.
Monika Sengul-Jones
Monika Sengul-Jones (she/her), PhD, is an independent writer and scholar based in Seattle, WA, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. She has a doctorate in Communication and Science & Technology Studies and an MA in Gender Studies. She has taught at University of Washington, UC San Diego, and Central European University; she was the inaugural co-managing editor of Catalyst, a feminist technoscience journal. Her research and original reporting on technologies, civic media, and intersectional feminism have been supported by Art+Feminism, European Journalism Centre, OCLC, Knight Foundation, WikiCred, and Wikimedia Foundation. She is at work on a debut novel that takes on the geographies of pollution and inheritance of trauma. As an instructor, she encourages students to take risks by listening, following ideas, and naming the extraordinary in the ordinary.
