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Climate science fiction, or 鈥渃li-fi,鈥� is having a renaissance, with writers like Kim Stanley Robinson and Emily St. John Mandel garnering national attention. Although the genre is recent, the bleakness of post-climate-change stories is nothing new in science fiction.

But not all of these stories are grim postapocalyptic journeys after climate catastrophes. In fact, a particular kind of cli-fi with themes of hope, resilience, and renewal has existed for years. Until recently, it鈥檚 been the purview of authors from communities that are underrepresented in publishing. These books offer a new and socially responsible look at what Earth could be like after an apocalyptic event鈥攚ritten by authors who were already living in spaces damaged by climate change and who had survived horrors in real life.

Here鈥檚 a look at a few authors who are writing cli-fi infused with some hope.

Omar El Akkad

Omar El Akkad is an Egyptian-born Canadian American novelist whose books (2018) and (2022) are on a number of cli-fi lists. He explains that the term 鈥渃li-fi鈥� may be a trend, but his stories are not. El Akkad says stories about or with themes of climate change are expected from writers today. 

鈥淚 don鈥檛 know how you write any kind of story in the world today without having to grapple with, in some way, what we are doing to this Earth,鈥� El Akkad says. 鈥淚鈥檓 not saying that every novel has to have a Category 12 hurricane in it or specifically address wildfires. But all literature is about what it means to be human. And right now, what it means to be human is to grapple with the place we live in and what we鈥檝e done to the place we live in.鈥� 

He goes on to say that the term 鈥渃li-fi鈥� is now more of a 鈥渄esignation of novelty than it is a designation of craft.鈥� He expects the label will fade away at some point, but the topic of climate change will remain. 

El Akkad鈥檚 upcoming, yet-to-be-titled novel is 鈥渁 sprawling mess.鈥� The story is about love and war, set in a time when climate change has devastated our world. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a story about love and revolution set in the final days of our species. It鈥檚 a century and a half from now, in the distant future.鈥� Although he doesn鈥檛 label the book cli-fi, he realizes that, like his previous two novels, the new one will 鈥渧ery much be called cli-fi.鈥� 

Pitchaya Sudbanthad

(2019), the runaway-hit debut novel by Pitchaya Sudbanthad, centers a clash of the modern Thai capital with ancient spaces, the rich and poor colliding in stories that carry the reader into a world not too far from the Bangkok that Sudbanthad grew up in.

The author says that the hope in his books comes from a reality that his culture knows all too well.

鈥淚 was projecting my imagination of my city and my people into the future. If they are to survive, then they are surviving in some kind of society that I don鈥檛 think is going to be as apocalyptic or as dystopian as many people envision the future of climate change societies.鈥�

Survivors of any cataclysmic climate event would come out changed on the other side, but some parts of society would still bear some semblance to where they were before it all began. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 no coincidence that the things we live with extend back to the ways of the ancients,鈥� Sudbanthad says. 鈥淓ven if it鈥檚 how we consider time, or what we call time and the seasons.鈥� 

For Bangkok Wakes to Rain, Sudbanthad says he was looking for a 鈥渃ontinuity through immeasurable loss and tragedy, and a society that survives that and is somehow building and rebuilding a vision of itself for the future and going forward.鈥�

Hope is inherent in the moving forward part of survival, Sudbanthad says. And storytelling grounded in the reality of underrepresented people who are already experiencing climate change transcends any genre. 

Sherri L. Smith

Sherri L. Smith鈥檚 bibliography includes several young adult titles. Among her mostly historical fiction,  (2013) stands out as a YA cli-fi novel about living through major hurricanes. In this story, a lethal virus has spread across the devastated Gulf Coast, with survival dependent on the victim鈥檚 blood type. 

The book is based partly on the story of Smith鈥檚 mother surviving the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. This true story had a happy ending, which Smith considers an integral part of any story written for younger readers. 

鈥淚 think all young adult fiction, all fiction for kids, should end in hope. It would be great if all adult fiction did too, but they seem to make money off of misery.鈥� 

That said, Smith says her focus when writing Orleans was not hope, but healing.

鈥淚 wanted to know, how do you heal this? How do you get out of the seeming dead end that we are headed toward?鈥� For Smith, the cli-fi that kids read today is what fuels the solutions of tomorrow. Thus, the stories must include a bit of guidance toward actions people can take now.

鈥淚 think climate fiction is a necessity,鈥� Smith says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e the thought lab of humanity鈥攚riters, artists, and scientists. We need to generate questions so that the people with the skills鈥攜ou know, a lot of scientists started out as science fiction fans鈥攃an start springboarding off our wacky ideas and saying, 鈥榃hat can we do?鈥欌��

Smith described a conference she attended, where sci-fi authors, including herself, spoke to a room full of scientists. One scientist told her, 鈥淲e have the science to save the world. We have the science to fix things. It鈥檚 not hard science that鈥檚 the problem; it鈥檚 social science. How do we convince people to do what needs to be done?鈥� 

We do it with cli-fi stories that can help them visualize better climate endings. 

As we read more stories by people who traditionally did not have a voice in science fiction鈥攑eople who have and currently are dealing with climate change in their communities鈥攚e will continue to see themes of hope. Because keeping hope alive is the key to humanity鈥檚 survival in both fictional worlds and the real one.  

Here are more authors whose books on climate change hold themes of hope:

Bijal Vachharajani is covering climate change in stories that kids can understand, such as in her book . 

Rebecca Roanhorse writes about whole civilizations in postapocalyptic worlds, injected with Indigenous characters and influence鈥攃heck out (2021). 

Nnedi Okorafor is another cli-fi writer who also works in comics, but she is best known for her novels, such as (2014).