Metamorphosis

A visionary anthology of climate fiction from Grist.

For many of us, the thought of our planet centuries in the future signals a volatile dystopia: our world devastated by climate change, our people bitter and broken. But this shining anthology presents an alternative future. These twelve winning selections from Grist’s Imagine 2200 short story contest shirk the fear and mourning that often mark speculative climate fiction, daring instead to dream of humanity’s varied communities meeting planetary challenges in fascinating and novel ways.

Imagine 2200 was founded to counter the dominance of the dystopian in futurist writings, and to “ensure climate stories and characters represent diverse voices, authentic cultures, and the intersectional reality of the climate crisis.” Metamorphosis beautifully elucidates those themes, featuring a wide array of thought—Afro-, Asian, Indigenous, Latinx, disabled, feminist, and queer futurisms, hopepunk, solarpunk, and more. In “To Labor for the Hive,” a beekeeper finds purpose and new love after collaborating on a bee-based warning system for floods. “Cabbage Koora: A Prognostic Autobiography” presents an ecologically rebalancing California where an Indian family preserves traditions through food and dance across generations. And in “And Now the Shade,” a Mexican bioengineer finds the answer to a perplexing problem in the dreams of her dying grandmother. Each of these powerful stories offers a glimpse of a future built not on cynicism, but on “sustainability, inclusivity, and justice,” testifying to the power of human courage and collective resilience.

Edited by Grist and introduced by Sheree Renée Thomas, a New York Times best-selling author and editor of the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Metamorphosis will electrify and activate readers concerned about our “future ancestors” and the fate of all our attending flora and fauna. These stunning stories imagine a tomorrow in which we do more than survive: we thrive—together.