[INSERT NAME OF ANY CLI-FI AUTHOR YOU KNOW HERE]

When [INSERT NAME OF ANY CLI-FI AUTHOR YOU KNOW HERE] began writing her novel in 2011, there weren't a great deal of  novels grappling with a post climate change world.
Fast forward several years and a large number of critically-acclaimed works have featured some sort of environmental catastrophe.  Publishers and booksellers have even adopted a term to help classify the string of books blurring the lines between genre and literary fiction: ''cli-fi.''

"It's an exciting time to be a novelist," she says. "But in some ways I wish it wasn't."

[INSERT NAME OF ANY CLI-FI AUTHOR YOU KNOW HERE] believes climate change seeping its way into fiction reflects a broader trend: one in which we debate school students protesting in the streets and people from all sides of politics coming together to remember strong leaders on environmental issues.

"All novels are Anthropocene novels," she says (the Anthropocene is the current geological age characterised by human-induced climate change and mass extinction, according to scientists). "I don't feel very positive about the future – I feel quite angry and upset. We're stuck in this real sense of loss and grief. But it's also too soon for grief. There's still a lot we can do. Stories create catharsis. We can use that catharsis to get past the paralysis."

''All novels are Anthropocene novels... We're stuck in this real sense of loss and grief''

[INSERT NAME OF ANY OTHER CLI-FI AUTHOR YOU KNOW HERE] who has written a novel set in a future, tropical city, isn't surprised that climate change is a more prominent theme in fiction than 10 years ago.
"Drought and fire, in particular, are long-running themes in  literature," she says. "So a climate-changed version of that is pretty comfortable terrain for a writer."

[INSERT NAME OF YET ANY OTHER CLI-FI AUTHOR YOU KNOW HERE]  is another writer who explores ecological disasters. Her most recent novel won a literary award in 2016 and was also shortlisted for another prize. The book has been optioned for television.

 

She believes climate change novels are popular because we are increasingly bombarded with alarming statistics. Fiction, she believes, is uniquely placed to explore what happens when those projections become reality.

"I feel like the current political debate – not just in this country, but particularly in this country – is impoverished," she says. "Fiction can help fill those gaps by providing a much more nuanced, exciting, imaginative and profound exploration of what is happening in our current moment. Fiction has this unique ability to articulate the inner life."

[INSERT NAME OF ANY MALE CLI-FI AUTHOR YOU KNOW HERE] agrees.

"It's not a coincidence there are so many dystopias around or that we keep telling stories about zombies and the undead, or even time travel stories," he says. "They're all expressions of a larger sense of a future that's slipping out of our control."
 

But [INSERT NAME OF ANY OTHER MALE CLI-FI AUTHOR YOU KNOW HERE] is sceptical about what kind of impact "cli-fi" books can have on people's opinions – let alone government policy.
"I've read some really great fiction dealing with climate change and I hope the genre continues," he says. "But like any other form of communication, its impact will remain limited while we are subject to the deafening shriek of denialism."

Potential outcomes aside, literary critics around the world now say one thing is clear: these themes aren't going away any time soon. Frequent wildfires and rising oceans haven't been restricted to fiction, either. Poets get involved with these themes, too.
 

"Having done six years of fiction editing ... I've read a lot of emerging writers' submissions," an editor says. "If anything, the new  generation of writers are more passionate about this, more engaged and more aware."