the new wave of climate fiction
i don’t need to explain to anyone why the proliferation climate fiction has skyrocketed over the past few years. this new wave of climate fiction, from 2020-present (ongoing), refuses to exclude climate catastrophe from depictions of or changing world. these works are grounded in present and future realities, the speculative less ‘speculative’, and more predictive.
created by aliyahmk
last updated April, 2026
Comments
Lovely list! I'd also add Ruthanna Emrys' A Half Built Garden, it's a scifi book set in a future very strongly shaped by climate catastrophe!
not necessarily a recommendation for this list, since it’s only a couple of the stories rather than all of them, but Make Your Way Home by Carrie R. Moore includes some climate fiction stories (I have a hard time getting myself to actually pick up a whole novel if I know I’m going to be reading about pandemics and climate catastrophes, but short stories were a lot easier to motivate myself to read 🙈 all very head in the sand of me)
Yesssss I love cli fi!! I recommend She’s a Killer by Kirsten McDougall and They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran
aliyahmkOP
thank you so much!
i already have a few of these on my TBR - definitely intrigued at checking out more from the list. cli-fi seems like an interesting genre
Ooo, there's an Alexis Wright book on here!!!
I love this list, thank you sm! If you’re taking recs, I just finished Sea Now (2022) by Eva Meijer. It’s a speculative novel exploring what would happen if the tideline rose until the Netherlands (it’s translated from dutch) became fully submerged. I really enjoyed it and its prose was lovely!
aliyahmkOP
ooh thank you so much for this rec! sounds perfect for this list and right up my alley!
