Anthologies

“In a refresh­ing­ly spe­cif­ic sto­ry, The Assign­ment, Sarah Aron­son rem­i­nisces about meet­ing with her rab­bi to dis­cuss her Torah por­tion, with Richard Nixon’s res­ig­na­tion in the back­ground of cur­rent events. Aronson’s nar­ra­tor is frus­trat­ed at a class assign­ment that excludes either women or Jews as sub­jects; she decides to write about polit­i­cal activist Abbie Hoff­man, mis­tak­en­ly believ­ing him to be a Jew­ish woman. This sto­ry is humor­ous, unex­pect­ed, and insightful.” —Jewish Book Council

From Kirkus:

This climate fiction anthology addresses the “severe anxiety over ecological devastation and disasters” experienced by “Gen Dread,” a term coined by Dr. Britt Wray, a researcher in climate change and mental health. The diverse contributors address readers through entries that include realistic, historical, and speculative fiction as well as a personal essay and explore water, trash, ecology, land use, climate disasters, flora and fauna, and more. Together, they convey both a slice-of-life quality and a feeling of urgency. Optimism blossoms in Erin Entrada Kelly’s “The Care and Feeding of Mother,” which is set in a futuristic, over-farmed, storm-battered world. Extinction takes center stage in the midst of student government elections in “The Manatee Is Not a Meme” by Gloria Muñoz. Jeff Zentner’s “Tellico Lake,” written in verse, is a powerful retelling of history reshaped by a dam. Many of the pieces will linger with readers. In Karina Iceberg’s “Worldfall,” the prose crackles as wildfires blaze. In “The Divining,” by Kim Johnson, water diviners find hope in both stories and water. And “Critobis,” by Aya de Leon, is a searing story of remembrance and survival set in a landscape reshaped by rising oceans. A QR code takes readers to general resources that help with action, inspiration, and mental health support, as well as materials connected to each story.

A powerful look at a shifting world.

Starred Review:

Author and editor Nora Shalaway Carpenter (Fault Lines) pulls together an inspiring and varied collection of cli-fi short stories, all designed to encourage hope in their readers. Onward includes dystopian, speculative, and realistic fiction as well as poetry and essays that highlight the myriad ways the climate crisis manifests and contributes to the “intense climate grief and hopelessness” of young people. But as Carpenter points out in her foreword, “it is story–much more than facts–that changes minds.”

Onward opens forcefully with “The Care and Feeding of Mother” by two-time Newbery Medalist Erin Entrada Kelly. This dystopian story features a girl in an overfarmed world who finds and nurtures a virtually unheard-of resource: seeds. Kelly’s brief narrative is cynically hopeful, reminding the audience of what they take for granted and showing that there’s still time for change. Jeff Zentner uses poetry to tell a fictionalized account of “Tellico Lake,” the Tellico Dam, and the near extinction of the snail darter. Zentner emphasizes that “it’s easy to think something will never happen/ if you can’t see it happening right away.” In Xelena González‘s essay “The World Within,” she shares a personal experience from a college writing class where she realized that “when we look at the world through a lens of familial love, destruction becomes harder to inflict.”

The vast array of voices, perspectives, topics, and styles make Onward a distinct and intriguing collection. A QR code following the acknowledgements leads to a slew of additional resources that will “allow readers to take some kind of action immediately,” helping them to move onward… and to save the world. –Jen Forbus, freelancer