Robert Minhinnick story Scavenger joins the CLI FI climate change dystopian fiction genre (17-12-2013)
'Scavenger', Robert Minhinnick's post climate-change story, first published in NWR 101 (autumn edition), will be part of The Dalkey Archive's
Best European Fiction 2014 anthology (alongside international translations) launched at a
reading/panel at 6.30 for 7pm, Wednesday January 15, 2014, at Europe House, Smith Square, London SW1P.
The story also attracted the attention of Taiwan-based
CLI FI CENTRAL blogging site dedicated to speculative fiction set in a post-climate change world. CLI FI's blogger Dan Bloom contacted NWR editor Gwen Davies seeking permission to replicate links to the taster from 'Scavenger' on NWR's site. Dan, a US citizen, credits himself with coining the term of CLI FI for climate-change themed stories and novels, as well as films.
Since I'm not a big reader of dystopian anything, let alone CLI FI, I cannot attempt to open up a discussion of the genre in Wales, although a quick think does reveal two examples. At least one from Seren's New Stories from the Mabinogi novellas takes climate change as a catalyst, if not an actual setting: Horatio Clare's
The Prince's Pen. And Lloyd Jones'
Y Dwr, out next year in the author's English translation, is a classic climate change novel, as Lloyd himself discusses in NWR's recent
campaigning interview.
'Scavenger' was published in NWR's autumn edition as a preview from Robert's prose essays and stories just out from Seren,
Island of Lightning.
Robert Minhinnick is the prize-winning author of two volumes of essays, seven volumes of poetry and a novel; he is the co-founder of the environmental organisation, Sustainable Wales, and his story first published in NWR, 'El Aziz, Some Notes from his Notebooks' was shortlisted last year for the EFG Private Bank Sunday Times Short Story Award.
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