NOTE TO FUTURE: Beginning in 2020, a full-scale literary awards named after Nevil Shute will award ONE PRIZE EACH YEAR for the BEST CLI FI NOVEL OF THE PRECEDING YEAR, with a prize of US$202,000 in 2020 -- to match the year -- and US$202,100 in 2021, and so on for the next 99 years, funded by a major benefactor and run by a jury of literary critics and academics at a major university -- with the goal of finding those cli fi novels that best tell the story that needs to be told. So the current NEVILS, which will be handed out every year until 2019 as the last year, will segue into the NEVILS of 2020, so this current awards program is setting the stage. And thanks to all the writers here! You are the heroes! GO GO GO!
''The Nevils'' for 2014 are noted here, at this blog, and at other cli fi blogs around the world.
The Nevils are named after Nevil Shute, the author of ON THE BEACH, published in 1957, which had such a large impact on the civilized world via the book and the subsequent movie.
In hopes that cli fi novels, both for adults and in the YA category, can also impact world opinion on the need to find ways to stop climate change and global warming based in scientific consensus and international cooperation, the NEVILS, a nickname for the annual ''NOTED CLI FI NOVELS OF THE YEAR'' awards, hope to become a beacon of hope among writers, publishers, editors, readers, scientists, climate activists, media observers, the public and book critics and reviewers worldwide.
This will be annual list issue every year on July 24th.
The 2014 list of noted cli fi novels is here:
OFFICIAL LIST TO BE RELEASED ON July 24, 2014 for media pick-up worldwide.
All authors of noted books in the Nevils each year are more than welcome to note their inclusion in the NEVILS for 2014 on their own blogs, tweets, Facebook updates, email blasts and book covers (front or back covers), with a link back to this blog if so wished for easy accessibility.
The noted cli fi authors of 2014 are, in no particular order:
Gregory Zeigler, USA, ''THE STRAW THAT BROKE''
Jim Laughter, USA, ''POLAR CITY RED'', paperback, Kindle
Karl-Friedrich Lenz, Japan, "Last Week"
Hamish MacDonald, SCOTLAND, ''FINITUDE''
Lisa Devaney, UK, ''In Ark''
Tara L. Masih, November Heat, short story
Tara L. Masih, ''If You Had Stopped'' - short story/flash fiction
Claude Nougat, ITALY, ''Forever Young''
Mindy McGinnis, USA, YA ''Not a Drop to Drink''
Paolo Bacigalupi, USA, THE WATER KNIFE, (in progress, release date 2015/2016)
Emmi Itaranti, Finland, THE MEMORY OF WATER
Lloyd Jones, WALES, ''WATER''
Kate Kelly, UK, ''RED ROCK''
NOEL HODSON, UK, ''AD 2516: After Global Warming''
Paulette Jiles, USA, Lighthouse Island
Kat Ross, YA novel, SOME FINE DAY
JZ O'Brien, USA, ''SURVIVING ABE''
Sarah Holding, UK, SeaBEAN
Edan Lupecki, USA, ''CALIFORNIA''
Wayne Marinovich, USA, ''FLOODLANDERS''
Jane Rawson, Australia, ''A Wrong Turn at the Office of Unmade Lists''
Joshua David Bellin, YA, ''SURVIVAL COLONY 9''
James R. Gilbert, UK, ''THE ADMIRAL''
Nathaniel Rich, USA, ''ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW'', paperback 2014
Chang-rae Lee, USA, ''ON SUCH A FULL SEA''
Antti Tuomainen, FINLAND, ''THE HEALER'' - cli fi noir
Honorable Mention: George Marshall, UK, nonfiction book titled "Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change (2014)
SPECIAL MENTION: to be announced on December 31, 2014 -- a surprise YA cli fi novelist that no one has heard of yet [but you will SOON, I can guarantee that!]
NOTE TO MEDIA: This noted cli fi novels of 2014 list was compiled by Dan Bloom, a climate activist and literary theorist who has been popularizing the cli fi genre term for a number of years as a platform for writers and movie directors to use as they see fit in the creation of their own novels, short stories and movies.
Mr Bloom is not a novelist and has no financial interest in the cli fi genre at all.
His work here is as an unpaid volunteer in the service of humanity in the hopes that humankind can avert the Climapocalypse by coming together as one people on one Earth to work in cooperation and harmony to stop climate change and global warming before things get so bad that civilization as we know it collapses in on itself and ALL IS LOST.
We must not let that happen! This this annual list of cli fi novels called THE NEVILS, as a PR wake up call for people around the world.
NOTE TO FUTURE: Beginning in 2020, a full-scale literary awards named after Nevil Shute will award ONE PRIZE EACH YEAR for the BEST CLI FI NOVEL OF THE PRECEDING YEAR, with a prize of US$202,000 in 2020 -- to match the year -- and US$202,100 in 2021, and so on for the next 99 years, funded by a major benefactor and run by a jury of literary critics and academics at a major university -- with the goal of finding those cli fi novels that best tell the story that needs to be told. So the current NEVILS, which will be handed out every year until 2019 as the last year, will segue into the NEVILS of 2020, so this current awards program is setting the stage. And thanks to all the writers here! You are the heroes! GO GO GO!
26 comments:
Oh wow! What? Really? For real? OMG, I'm thrilled!
Yes, will big it up, shout it out!
Thanks so much Danny.
I'm doing a lot more on the book marketing front this summer. I have gotten a summer intern who is ACE and helping out on both my book marketing and with my tech startup PR business.
So, you'll hopefully see more traction with In Ark over the next few months.
And, we are working on making a book launch event happen and doing a Google Hangout in conjunction with the event.
Again, wow, I'm so amazed about this news.
LISA DEVANEY, UK, via email
Lisa Devaney in Cli-Fi
I’m thrilled to tell you that my book ‘In Ark: A Promise of Survival’ has been selected for the 2014 list of the NEVILS (Noted Cli-Fil Novels Of The Year)!
Lisa Devaney’s book has been listed on the 2014 NEVIL LIST!
The list will officially be announced on July 24th, but I got word early from Danny Bloom, the inventor of the new literary genre cli-fi (climate change fiction). I’m listed among some great writers and books, and so it is a great honour to me to be included.
The NEVILS are named after Nevil Shute, for his famous novel On The Beach. Bloom came up with the idea for the Nevils, naming them after Nevil Shute, and hoping to inspire a book one day that would do for climate change what Shute did for nuclear war — make people give a damn, make people do something about it and make people wake up to the call of the dangerous threat. Still, climate deniers rage on against the realities and truth that climate change will happen, and still people are not taking enough action to stop global warming and the destruction of the environment of Earth. Maybe these books, these ideas, these writers and the hard work and effort of Danny Bloom to create and promote the genre of cli-fi, will help the situation. Let’s hope so!
Other author’s on the list include:
Greg Ziegler, Claude Forthomme, Hamish MacDonald, Mindy McGinnis, Paolo Bacigalupi, Emmi Itaranti, Lloyd Jones, Kate Kelley, Kat Ross, Joshua David Bellin, Dr Lenz, Nathaniel Rich, Chang-rae Lee and Antti Tuoamenin.
Exciting and I hope I get to walk down the red carpet!
Tags: #clifi, #InArk, Antti Tuoamenin, award, book, books, Chang-rae Lee, Claude Forthomme, cli-fi, Danny Bloom, Dr Lenz, Emmi Itaranti, Greg Ziegler, Hamish MacDonald, In Ark A Promise of Survival, Joshua David Bellin, Kat Ross, Kate Kelley, lisadevaney, Lloyd Jones, Mindy McGinnis, Nathaniel Rich, NEVILS, Paolo Bacigalupi
Dan, this is exciting news! I'm very happy to see my book "FOREVER YOUNG" included along with such great titles - I haven't read them all, I've only read Nathaniel Rich's and Barbara Kingsolver's books and I can highly recommend them, great reads!I'm putting the others on my TBR list!
PS to the previous commentator, please note that Claude Forthomme is my real name and the one I reserve for my non-fiction work; Claude Nougat is my pen name, in use since 2011 when I released my first novel "Luna Rising".
Dan.
Wow. So honoured and privileged to have my name and Floodlanders on the list. There are a few books that I have not seen before, so I will be hitting Amazon to read the other fantastic work out there.
Thanks for your tireless efforts. Onward and upward...
All the best
'The Nevils' praise top noted 'cli fi' novels of 2014
"I’m thrilled to tell you that my new cli fi novel ‘In Ark: A Promise of Survival’ has been selected for the 2014 list of 'The Nevils', (Noted Cli-Fil Novels Of The Year)," writes Lisa Devaney in London. "This award honours new cli-fi (climate change fiction) authors and books each year."
"The list was created by climate activist and literary theorist Danny Bloom, who coined the phrase 'cli-fi' and is devoted to making the literary genre a worldwide success," Devaney added. "I am listed among some amazing writers and books, and so it is a great honour for me to be included."
''The Nevils'' are named after Nevil Shute, for his famous novel "On The Beach" -- first published in 1957 and warning the world about the dangers of nuclear war and nuclear winter. Bloom says he came up with the idea for ''The Nevils'', naming them after Mr Shute, and hoping to inspire a writer to create one day create that will do for climate change what the British-Australian writer did for nuclear war -- make people give a damn, make people do something about it and make people wake up to the call of a dangerous threat.
Still, climate deniers rage on against the realities and truth that climate change will happen, and still people are not taking enough action to stop global warming and the destruction of the environment of Earth. The disrespect, denial and constant destruction of nature with activities like ‘fracking’ will be the end of our planet. Maybe these Nevils, these cli-fi books, these ideas, these writers and the hard work and effort of the organizers to create and promote the genre of cli-fi, will help the situation. Let’s hope so.
Among cli fi authors honored this year are
Gregory Ziegler in America, Claude Nougat in Italy, Hamish MacDonald in Scotland, Mindy McGinnis in America, Emmi Itaranti in Finland, Lloyd Jones in Wales, Kate Kelly in the UK, Kat Ross in New York, Joshua David Bellin in America, and Antti Tuoamenin in Finland.
To see the entire list of noted cli fi novels of 2014 -- "The Nevils" \
I've been noticing a few more articles than usual about "cli-fi." Like
this one: New York Times embraces 'mushrooming' genre of cli-fi:
According to the Times account, novels set against a backdrop of
climate change are beginning to make their mark on the literary scene,
with books such as The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi and Flight
Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver. Cli-fi novels and movies "fit into a
long tradition of speculative fiction that pictures the future after
assorted catastrophes," the Times reported.
And this: Climate change: The hottest thing in science fiction:
Post-apocalyptic science fiction isn't new. But you may have noticed
an uptick in books set in the wake of some kind of major climate
disaster. Some call it "cli-fi" -- sci-fi infused with the increasingly
frightening impacts of climate change. The trope has deep roots, says
science fiction scholar Istvan Csicery-Ronay, and plenty of room to
grow.
In fact, of late, cli-fi has been creeping out of the fantasy and
science fiction sections of bookstores and libraries and into the
mainstream. Yes, there's more!
OP-ED: "Cli-Fi" May Be No Stranger Than Reality
In a world facing potentially catastrophic impacts from climate
change, this new literary genre is now becoming part of our communal
storytelling culture, imparting new ideas and insights about the
future humanity might face, not only in 10 years, but in 100 or 500
years as well.
This is where cli-fi comes in. It can play an important role in
bringing the emotions and feelings of characters in a well-written
story or novel to the awareness of readers worldwide. Imagine a cli-fi
novel that not only reached thousands of readers, but also touched
them, and perhaps motivated them to become a louder voice in the
raging international policy debate over carbon emissions.
That's the potential of cli-fi.Because I know you're digging this as
much as I am, here's two more:
'Cli-fi': could a literary genre help save the planet?
'Cli-Fi' Rising to New Hollywood Heights
And I daresay the buzz around Bong Joon Ho's film SNOWPIERCER has been
helping put cli-fi on the map as well.
I'm glad to see a renewed interest in cli-fi stories and I'm
definitely keen to read more SFRs where climate change is integral to
the plot or strongly affects it. Ones that unsettle me, make me think,
and prompt me to reflect on current environmental problems. A couple
finding love in the midst of climatic chaos is appealing because it
humanizes the catastrophe and provides hope.
So what's an SFR fan to read if she's interested in cli-fi romance?
Ella Drake's DESERT BLADE certainly falls under the cli-fi category.
True to the blurb, I got a strong sense of the Midwest being a
"ravaged dust bowl." The world is in dire straits after scientists
flubbed a number of crop experiments. The story includes details about
the setting that lingered in my head long after I'd finished the book:
A pressure beneath his hand made him laugh. Nobody bothered to ask
permission for anything anymore. Not since the future crop--the edible,
fast- growing and renewable Tasho Vine--had gotten out of control and
covered the earth, and the experimental fungus Tasho Killer had
eradicated nearly everything in its path. People fell to hunger and
riots. Desperation sent those who could to the remaining pockets of
civilization where a few food crops remained.
It was amazing how infrastructure and technology didn't mean much when
there was nothing to eat. Amazing how a man would kill another for a
sack of flour.
Another cli-fi SFR title is my own ONCE UPON A TIME IN SPACE. Global
warming and other environmental issues were front and center on my
mind during the book's development. When the story begins, Earth is
dying as a result of human-made environmental disasters. This drives
the hero and heroine together for a two-part mission: Nick embarks on
a journey to find a new world while Raquel hunts a villain who intends
to betray humanity during its most vulnerable time.
Most of the story in Rinelle Gray's RECKLESS RESCUE occurs on a planet
with a gas so toxic the inhabitants are rendered infertile. While
perhaps not a cli-fi setting per se (the gas occurs naturally IIRC),
the absence of technology and treacherous living conditions gave me an
impression of a colony in the grip of climatic danger.
Sheryl Nantus' steampunk romance WILD CARDS AND IRON HORSES has a
polluted American Old West. The pollution's role seemed more
atmospheric than a driving plot force, but I appreciate the effort
(the bigger reason to read this title is for the disabled,
prosthetic-wearing hero).
Road romance DRIVEN by Eve Kenin features an icy, "Northern Waste"
setting, but unfortunately the worldbuilding details are a little too
vague for me to definitively apply the cli-fi descriptor, unless I
missed something.
Claire Delacroix's FALLEN features radioactive wastelands and lots of
detailed worldbuilding, but IMHO the story is more dystopian than
cli-fi (not that there's anything wrong with that!).
Lynn Brittan's ANJA'S STAR makes a brief reference to an Earth so
inhospitable that humans have to wear masks. I sure wanted to know
more about that aspect of the world. Perhaps the other books in her
Outer Settlement Agency series feature additional references? (LANA'S
COMET is on my Kindle, so I will find out soon!)
As for other cli-fi SFR, either I haven't read them or I'm drawing a
blank. Hit me up if you're in the know about other relevant titles!
Back to The Land; what is this world that Ms. Lepucki has created from the ashes of our current state of the nation? A place where everything ends slowly and people move out of the cities because they are not worth living in. The world has gone way down hill, and there is only bad just to warm you. But at the end of this world we discover a blissfully good, solid, regenerative quality to the way Cal and Frida are living, and it is the returning to the human world that dooms them. The problem with the earth has nothing to do with the land, or the way we’ve built it up on it, covering it with pavement, and squeezing it like an orange for all it’s juice. I often have to remind myself to never underestimate the other guy, especially if he is your brother. The Land is a place I would not want to visit, even if I were interested in living off the grid. The food sounded terrible, and the people are vigilant at the very least. Nothing is forever, not even the dictator at the center of this fantastic novel. I wish it were possible to get amnesia so I could read California again and again.
Despite the fact that a certain television personality brought this book to the world’s attention, creating a publicity gold mine, I was already thinking about reading it because of my own interests in the end of the world. Sad as that may sound, my interests are warranted, because finding good stories about how it all will end is worthwhile. The Road set the bar impossibly high when it comes to post apocalyptic visions of the future, a story that leaves a mark on you like a gruesome tattoo. I warn people who haven’t tackled McCarthy’s masterpiece, that you can’t unread that book. Marcel Theroux’s Far North, which I read before California, put me on a fast train to find the best voice for this kind of writing. After reading Ms. Lepucki’s ridiculously compulsive and addicting novel, I believe the world won’t come to an end, but there will be a new beginning. The country will collapse, water will run out, or gas, something elemental that is blended deep in our fibers, and the strong will survive before the world resets. It’s how you make it through the reset that will matter most.
At first Ms. Lepucki creates a Garden of Eden and it seems like the last couple will be the first family. Cal and Frida tell their stories in alternating chapters, Cal a little cynical, but Frida has hope because of her own little surprise. We won’t know that secret, which hinges the book, for a few chapters. There is an immediate suspense and terror of living on the land, in a wilderness/desert just outside Los Angeles, and the voice is firmly naïve, plain and simple. Slowly we grow with this blissful couple into a safely intellectual space, that it is hard to notice how quickly you are being sucked into an exciting story. Cal and Frida live off what is left of the “grid”, the world collapsed because of a long slow decline; loss of natural resources, super storms, climate change, take your pick. It isn’t about how they got under the bridge, but how they will get out.
Hi Dan -- love the idea of the Nellies! How do I submit my novel, The Admiral, which just came out in May? Would love to be considered for next year! Many thanks for focussing attention on the genre! -- Jim Gilbert
Jim Gilbert, THE ADMIRAL made the list....the first blog post was just first draft, the official list goes out to media worldwide on JULY 24, so your novel is on the list now BRAVO. thanks for reminding me of the novel and its pub date, MAY, yes. 2014 for sure
NevilShute.org @ItemWillie · Jun 26
Nevil Shute readers. Don't forget there's the Facebook group "Shutusts" please RT
Wow Dan, great news!
I'm guessing more will be added come late July? Your initial shortlist doesn't have all we've been seeing in the past month on clifibooks.com. Guess I'm getting ahead of myself though - I'm too excited!
What a great new addition to promote action on climate change! Well done to those involved.
All the best
Honorable Mention 2014: in NONFICTION CATEGORY - George Marshall, UK, nonfiction book titled "Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change (2014)
SPECIAL MENTION 2014: to be announced on December 31, 2014 -- a surprise YA cli fi novelist that no one has heard of yet [but you will SOON, I can guarantee that! believe you me, living somewhere on this planet called Earth... male, female, cannot ID him or her yet but this is BIG BIG BIG!]
PRESS RELEASE
'Cliffies' Awards at Small Midwest Liberal Arts College to Honor Films
About Climate Change as Part of annual film festival run by professors
and students
After creating and popularizing the rising new genre of "cli-fi"
(novels and movies about climate change and global warming) and
pushing the meme into the pages of the New York Times, Time magazine
and NPR, I am now in the process of setting up a new national film
awards event I am calling the "Cliffies" - "Cli-Fi movies that
matter."
The informal name of the awards event, to be held annually at a
liberal arts college in the Midwest is "The Cli-Fi Movie Awards."
Faculty and students will work together to host the event, and science
reporter Andrew C. Revkin of the New York Times "Dot Earth" blog has
graciously given permission for a song he wrote and sings to be the
introductory theme music for the annual event.
Also read: ''New York Times Rides Growing Wave of Climate Fiction''
We are planning to have climate-themed movie award categories for
director, film, photography, music, sound editing, film editing,
actor, actress, supporting actor, supporting actress, costumes, and
screenplay, adapted or original. We have some sponsors, some funding
from a major venture capital fund, an administrative team, a PR
consultant, a venue at the college and a date.
We plan to get the Cliffies off the ground in early 2015 pre- and
post-Oscars, and with news coverage of the awards ceremony and the
presenters carried in the major newspapers and wire services of the
world.
The preliminary planning and organizing work is going on now.
As one of the organizers and a member of the planning team,
''patience'' is my middle name. I've still got some time left on
Earth. For me, already in the sunset years of my life, life unfolds
day by day, and I am one happy camper, 24/7. But this Earth of ours,
old as it is and pristine as it used to be, is running out of time,
due to climate change and global warming. So in that sense, I'm in a
hurry. A slow, patient hurry!
Also read: ''John Oliver and Bill Nye Slam Climate Change Skeptics:
'Who Gives a S-t?'' (Video)
continued...
I call myself a deep-green climate activist and literary theorist who
woke up to the existential threat of a future Climapocalypse in 2006.
Before then I wasn't really paying attention. Now I am, seven days a
week. I live, sleep and dream ''cli fi'' issues and ideas. And this is
the most meaningful work I've ever done in my life, even though I
don't have a salary or an office for this. I work on my own time out a
small Internet cafe and rent the email machines for an hour or two
every day.
The debate over climate issues is a war of words, a war of emotions
and empathy for future generations. It is my hope that these Cli-Fi
Film Awards -- the Cliffies -- will serve as important wake up calls
every year, not just to the Hollywood film world but also for
audiences worldwide. And news reports of the annual event will also
play an important role, in addition to the film producers themselves
using the PR value of the awards ceremony for their own marketing and
an distribution needs.
The funding? We are going by the line from "Field of Dreams" that "if
you build it, he will come" -- but I am changing the line to "if you
build it, they will come," and by "they" I mean the sponsoring groups
and the venture capitalits funds who will back this annual prize
event.
I am hoping that the media attention and publicity surrounding this
new cli fi film awards event will bring more people to see climate
themed movies, both fiction movies and documentaries, as well as
motivate Hollywood studios to greenlight more cli fi movies. Enough
with the sci fi blockbusters! We need serious, powerful cli fi movies.
Do you know anyone who wants to join this team or a reporter who wants
to cover the event this March? Email me at danbloom@gmail.com
Let's make this thing happen. First baby steps are now.
ellen tweeted
Jun 26
Someone wants to create the ”Cliffies” for ”Cli-Fi movies that matter.” ”cli-fi” (novels and movies about... http://fb.me/3jz93nwBe
http://www.climatedepot.com/2014/07/29/nyt-cli-fi-will-fiction-influence-how-we-react-to-climate-change/
NYT: ‘Cli-Fi’ – ‘Will Fiction Influence How We React to Climate Change?’
Read the Full Article
SPECIAL MENTION: to be announced on December 31, 2014 -- a surprise YA cli fi novelist that no one has heard of yet [but you will SOON, I can guarantee that!]
Dave Fessenden formerly acquisitions editor at CLC Publications, has joined WordWise Media Services as literary agent and can be contacted at dave@wordwisemedia.com.
James Lance formerly publisher at Kumarian Press, has joined WordWise Media Services as literary agent and can be contacted at Jlance007@comcast.net.
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