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Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors 2021 contest collection

When writers from different backgrounds envision the future, the tales they tell expand our ability to imagine a better world. That’s why, in 2021, we launched a short story contest, Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors. We encouraged entrants to envision the next 180 years of equitable climate progress. The three winning stories and nine finalists create intersectional worlds in which no community is left behind. Whether built on abundance or adaptation, reform or a new understanding of survival, these stories provide flickers of hope, even joy, and serve as a springboard for exploring how fiction can help create a better reality.

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Supported by

The 2021 Imagine contest collection

How Imagine 2200 came to life

A group exercise to envision a clean, just future became a climate-fiction contest to create stories of life in that future.

Credits

 
CONTRIBUTORS

Contest judges

Adrienne Maree Brown, Morgan Jerkins, Kiese Laymon, Sheree Renée Thomas

Story reviewers

Tobias Buckell, Andrew Dana Hudson, Sarena Ulibarri

Art and illustration

Grace Abe, Amelia Bates, Rebekka Dunlap, Carolina Rodgriguez Fuenmayor

Web development

Michael Weslander

Special thanks

Chip Giller, Paul Sturtz

GRIST

Project and creative lead

Tory Stephens

Project manager

Galia Binder

Fix director

Lisa Garcia

Fix editor, creative storytelling

Jessica Stahl

Fix managing editor

Jaime Buerger

Fix editors

Chuck Squatriglia, Claire Elise Thompson

Fix program assistant

Josh Kimelman

Director of Innovation and Growth

Christian Skotte

Design

Mignon Khargie, Mia Torres

Social media and engagement

Jake Banas, Myrka Moreno

THANK YOU TO OUR FOUNDING COMMUNITY PARTNERS

Isis Asare, Sistah Scifi; Lorraine Avila, storyteller; Tom André Bardwell; Dr. Lindsay Beane; Victoria Benson, principal and founder, Justice Alchemy; Erica Berry; Shannon Bland, Black Librarians; Dan Bloom, editor, The Cli-Fi Report; Adam Burk; Jill Louise Busby; Amber Butts; Brian Calvert, writer; Madeleine Charney, Sustainability Round Table: Libraries Fostering Resilient Communities; Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, CoFUTURES; Nico Chin, founder, Up With Community; Clarion West Writers Workshop; Climate Fiction Writers League; Dr. Tracy A. Corley; Milton Davis, owner, MVmedia; Pauline Destrée, University of St Andrews; Noel Didla, Center for Ideas, Equity & Transformative Change; Grace L. Dillon, Anishinaabe, professor of Indigenous nations studies, Portland State University; Kim Doty, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts; Abrah Dresdale, director, Regenerate Change; Jayeesha Dutta, Another Gulf Is Possible Collaborative; Aaron Eisenberg, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung NYC; Joey Eschrich, Center for Science and the Imagination, Arizona State University; Ed Fields, City of Birmingham; Rebecca Fullan, Macaulay Honors College, The City University of New York; Andrea Hairston, novelist and professor, Smith College; Andrew Dana Hudson; Amara Ifeji, Maine Environmental Education Association and Maine Environmental Changemakers; Antoinette Isama, culture journalist; Brian Kahn, managing editor, Earther; Anand Kalra, Uncaged Library Arts & Information; Tim Lampkin, CEO and founder, Higher Purpose Co.; Isiah Lavender III, Sterling-Goodman professor of English, University of Georgia; Frances S. Lee; Loam; Rochelle Malter, The Theater Offensive; Vanessa Mason, Institute for the Future/Future of Belonging; Taylor Mayes; Preston Mitchum, attorney and activist; Kathryn Mockler, publisher, Watch Your Head; Emily Nemens; Orion Magazine; Alsie Parks, Black Agrarian Workers of the South Collective; Rachel Ramirez, climate writer, CNN; Tia Ross, Black Writers Collective; Charlie A. Scott, Diné Aesthetic(s); Darel Scott, Earth in Color; Antoinette Scully, Black & Bookish; Anamarie Shreeves, Fort Negrita; Aisha Shillingford, artistic director, Intelligent Mischief; Ashia Sims; Aurie Singletary, Clique Creative; Pinar and So Sinopoulos-Lloyd, cofounders, Queer Nature; Jen Sokolove, director of programs and strategy, Water Foundation; Leo Sorge; John Stephenson, managing director, The Rhode Island Writers’ Colony; Harold Steward, The Theater Offensive; C. D. Tavenor, Two Doctors Media Collaborative; Taryne Jade Taylor, assistant professor, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; Julia Torres, Montbello Campus Library, Denver Public Schools; Carlton Turner, Sipp Culture; Sarah Vickery, The Theater Offensive; Francesco Verso, writer and editor, Future Fiction; Jasmine Wade, Archive of Futures; Kayley Whalen, Sins Invalid; Troy L. Wiggins; Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, Edgeryders/LIRNEasia; Audrey T. Williams, cofounder, Ancestral Futures; Calvin Williams, cofounder, Wakanda Dream Lab; Dr. T. Anansi Wilson, assistant professor of law; A.C. Wise; Karen Ceres Wright, president, Diverse Writers and Artists of Speculative Fiction; Sam Zacher, The Trouble magazine; Hari Ziyad, RaceBaitr