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Articles by Anya Markov

Anya Markov (she/her/they/them) lives in London and works for the trade union movement. Anya grew up in Moscow and as a first grader earnestly believed in the silver-hoof deer.

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Imagine 2200, Fix’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.

2040

There was this girl called Zarni, a quiet, slight thing, but principled before everything, the kind of person I really bond with. She grew up in a nickel mining town, Northern Urals, not so far from my heartland.

Zarni read about me aged 7, at school. After that, for weeks and months, I would be all she talked about. 

You might have done that too, in her place. Imagine your family lives by the grace of underground minerals, and that grace is slowly but surely running out: in part because the mine is exhausted, and in part because more and more places in the world have learned to reuse things instead of taking them out of the ground. 

Now imagine that you read about a magical deer that can produce rare precious stones by striking its silver hoof on the rocks. Your Mum tells you the mine is running out of time, and then what? You don’t know? You would go into the woods too, looking for the sil... Read more