Solarpunk Nights On My Mind

3/27/2024

Solarpunk everything is a topic I am deeply invested in. If we are to have a future that is not a gestalt dystopia, this is it. I have written several essays on the subject as well as a novelette:

In Search of Afro-Solarpunk: Parts One and Two
for Tor.com

In Search of Afro-Solarpunk (2 parts) for Tor.com: There is afrofuturism. There is solarpunk. At the time I wrote this essay, there was no afro-solarpunk. This was an exploration of what an afro-solarpunk story might look like. Also, Joey Ayoub was kind enough to interview me about the essay.

Promised Land
for the New Modality

"Promised Land" for The New Modality: Solarpunk is, generally speaking, anti-organized religion; even though the majority of people effected by climate change are black or brown, and profess some kind of faith. I discuss ways around that using Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower as a framing device. The essay was originally published in The New Modality, but you can now find it right here.

The City is a Hot Place to Be
for Solarpunk Magazine
&
Please, Don't Call It Cyber Punk
for Apex Magazine
&
Ice Like Honey
forthcoming for Lightspeed Magazine,
Dartmouth College
(& one more super secret place)

Last day of our retreat at Dartmouth College's Speculative Fiction Project. They will publish my solar punk noir novelette, "Ice Like Honey."

You should definitely buy the entire volume, but here is a pdf with my essay,

The City is a Hot Place to Be for Solarpunk Magazine: I believe solarpunk ideals and genres should be popularized and I think noir, specifically a solarpunk noir would be a fantastic vehicle to do so. I give the contours of such a genre in this issue.

That last topic, solar punk noir, is still a work in progress. Since writing the essay, I have sold a novelette to Lightspeed Magazine via their collaboration with Dartmouth College's Speculative Fiction Project. Publication dates are still in the works, but in the narrative I was able to work out first tenants of solarpunk I'd previously outlined:

Urban life reimagined: It moves beyond modernist and post-modernist conservative symbolism and psychology that has dominated our thinking on cities.
Near future: It makes little to no break with the usable past.
Capitalism: Since we are discussing the present, the dominant economic ideology and how one deals with it or the mechanics of getting beyond it need to be taken into account.
Public policy: Stories that delve into and detail the complexities of the public good, and how they can be worked for or against us.
A focus on political violence: All violence stems from people trying to hold onto power vs those trying to change economic and man-made ecological systems for the better.
Systemic Hope: The hero may lose, but we do not. We make good decisions and deal with the consequences.
Power: A lesson learned from Octavia Butler. These stories are about people taking power and power's consequences.

I wrote another essay on Solarpunk Noir in Apex Magazine on the subject since some readers asked why I had not mentioned cyberpunk. It was intentional and I explain why in "Please, Don't Call it Cyberpunk.". Hopefully the novelette is published sometime soon, but academic presses move quite slow! If you find that you have written a solarpunk noir story, please let me know!

The Dark City As A Hot Place To Be_from Solarpunk Magazine-issue-6.pdf
File Size:	434 kb
File Type:	pdf

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Severed Sky by Ancient Mariner Games
(Storyrunner)

Just as the pandemic hit, Ancient Mariner Games hired me as showrunner for their anti-capitalist, solarpunk, 4x strategy game. COVID ate the company before we could launch, but the story and art were based on my design. At some point I may novelize it, unless somebody wants to pick-up where Ancient Mariner left off.

Intro to Solarpunk for Engineers

The people who will build our future are the engineers. I got a chance to introduce them to solarpunk as a guest lecturer at NYU Tandon. You can find the PowerPoints I used here.

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