Witches in the Summertime
Here we are under the heat dome
The Project Future Food Imaginaries in Global Climate Fiction, based in Sweden, wrote a beautiful and considered essay about ROAD OUT OF WINTER, focusing on the ways in which its female character re-centers the work of women in an emergency:
She is no witch, but she does have the farming and personal skills that may make her the centre of a new community. In doing so, she connects to a prevalent, global trend. As studies show, women (and gender-diverse minorities) are more vulnerable to socio-ecological breakdown than men. But communities of women have also … begun to organize. If there is a road out of winter for Wil, such organizing will be vital.
Trying to look forward to the road out of summer here, a road we might never be on again, really. It was sweltering last week when I taught high school writers, the kind of heat that presses you down, makes you tired. Time moved so strangely, as it always does there, as if we’re in another land. At first, it felt like we’d been together for years, then the days just zoomed by before it was the worst day, the last day: the hugs, the drive to the airport.
I’ve gotten past the unpacking, all the laundry. And I feel determined to enjoy summer this year. Already there’s been a visit to a lake, a friend’s visit, a return trip to Denver, and my favorite week with the young writers and old friends. I have more travel coming up with my family, and several weeks when my day job office is closed. Even though my son will be back in school by then, I’m going to try to fill them somehow.
We barely have two seasons, summer and winter, anymore. Both spring and fall seem like memories. It feels hazy now remembering how they used to last and linger. They exist for a week, maybe, before we’re rocketing into the next climate extreme. What helps me too is my day job, where I edit the articles of people working in climate science, learning about their work and how they’re trying.
Because people are trying, even if or though the ones with the most power are not.
Things are heating up with DUST too. Multiple large stacks of bookplates wait in my office to be signed. I have some lovely videos and images to share, thanks to my great team at St. Martin’s Press. And I have real advanced readers’ copies in hand. I will share them soon.