"Is it okay if I can't attend every discussion?"
Yes! Attend when you can. The more active participants in attendance, the more rewarding the experience is for everyone. We will be discussing different short stories from the eBook anthology at each meeting, so there's no need to "catch up" in order to participate.
"Do I need to buy the book?"
No, not unless you prefer to own it or use a different format. Houston Community College Libraries owns the Unlimited access eBook of Afterglow for HCC faculty, staff, and students to use.
"Can someone help me figure out how to read the eBook?"
If you need librarian assistance accessing this eBook, please contact an HCC Librarian from our Ask A Librarian page. There are several contact options: telephone, text message, email, and live chat.
The HCC Summer 2025 Virtual Book Club has been organized by Librarians Raquel Donahue, Jennifer Crispin, Virnesia Haywood, Giselle Ayala, Carmen Walton, Gwen Henderson, and Library Assistants Lorelei Frigillana and Sophia Hernandez. Please contact a librarian if you have questions about the program.
Grist. Afterglow: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors. The New Press, 2023.
Description: A science fiction anthology of hopeful and forward-looking futuristic short stories that explore how the power of storytelling can help create the world we need. It is edited by, and published in collaboration with Grist, a nonprofit media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions.
Keywords/Tags: 21st century, Afrofuturism, anthology, CliFi, climate change, hopepunk, literature, science fiction, short stories, solarpunk
Authors: Ailbhe Pascal, Marissa Lingen, Tehnuka, Ada M. Patterson, Michelle Yoon, Lindsey Brodeck, Rich Larson, Mike McClelland, Savitri Putu Horrigan, Renan Bernardo, Saul Tanpepper (bestselling author), Abigail Larkin. Includes a foreword by adrienne maree brown.
You can visit the StoryGraph page to learn more about this book through community user reviews and content warnings.
Afterglow: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors (eBook)
The discussion schedule will be determined in late April 2025 and announced early May 2025.
Short Stories to be Discussed |
Discussion Date |
Discussion Time |
Discussion Link |
| Introduction to the Book & Club | TBD | TBD | TBD |
|
Afterglow (6 pages) & The Cloud Weaver's Song (6 pages) |
TBD | TBD | TBD |
|
Tidings (6 pages) & A Worm to the Wise (6 pages) |
TBD | TBD | TBD |
| A Séance in the Anthropocene (8 pages) | TBD | TBD | TBD |
|
The Tree in the Back Yard (5 pages) & When It's Time to Harvest (7 pages) |
TBD | TBD | TBD |
| Broken From the Colony (7 pages) | TBD | TBD | TBD |
| The Case of the Turned Tide (6 pages) | TBD | TBD | TBD |
| El, The Plastrotrophs, and Me (7 pages) | TBD | TBD | TBD |
| Canvas-Wax-Moon (7 pages) | TBD | TBD | TBD |
|
The Secrets of the Last Greenland Shark (8 pages) & Wrap-up |
TBD | TBD | TBD |
“This is a glorious book that challenges our conceptions of bookmaking as much as it questions our conceptions of world-building. We, as earthlings, will be better to the earth after experiencing this book. That is not hyperbole.” —New York Times bestselling author Kiese Laymon
Read the Publisher's Weekly review of Afterglow at https://thenewpress.com/books/afterglow.
Hunter, Megan. The End We Start From: A Novel. Grove Press, 2017.
Paperback Copy | Hardcover Copy | eBook, 3 User Licenses
Description: As London is submerged below flood waters, a woman gives birth to her first child. Days later, she and her baby are forced to leave their home in search of safety. They head north through a newly dangerous country seeking refuge from place to place, shelter to shelter, to a desolate island and back again. The story traces fear and wonder, as the baby's small fists grasp at the first colors he sees, as he grows and stretches, thriving and content against all the odds...
Keywords/Tags: CliFi, climate change, death, dystopia, England, extreme weather, family, fiction, flood, grief, human migration, London, missing persons, motherhood, pregnancy, survival, tense, population displacement, psychological trauma, United Kingdom (UK)
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