Imagine 2200, Grist’s climate fiction contest, recognizes stories that envision the next 180 years of equitable climate progress, imagining intersectional worlds of abundance, adaptation, reform, and hope. Read the 2022 collection here. Or sign up for email updates to get new stories in your inbox.
1“How can a stream be sad?” I asked.
He looked at me like a hapless ofeke. He picked up the beads as if to say, “As I was saying …” As he rubbed them, his eyes rolled until I could not quite locate his consciousness. It was through this tactile intimacy that he looked deeply into our people’s stories. These beads had accompanied him as he went looking into our deaths and births, desires to leave home and return, conflicts and reconciliations, hopes and ambivalence. I comported myself even more reverentially. Yes, I may have come with a gift, but I was still a guest.
He threw the beads again and they splayed out in response. There was no chance pull of gravity here. Their entire configuration was hol... Read more
