2 SF experts Gary Wolfe and Jonathan Strahan are warming to rise of the cli-fi genre as initial reservations have faded away

Gary  Wolfe and Jonathan Strahan are on a tear and both men are publicly proclaiming ther acceptance of the rising new literary genre of cli-fi, following in the footsteps of Jeff VanderMeer. Wolfe says he hopes more graduate students and PhD candidates will write their dissertations on cli-fi, citing Australian PhD Cat Sparks' recent PHD dissertation on cli-fi.

Strahan, based in Australia where he cohosts a sci-fi podcast with Wolfe in Chicago, agreed with Gary and said, when asked by Gary what his opinion of cli-fi was, that he now accepts the term and its usefulness and has tempered his earlier reservations about the term.

''It doesnt bother me anymore" he said."It's proven its usefulness and even my friend Jeff VanderMeer supports cli-fi now as seen in a recent interview in Pacific Standard magazine with John Maher. So I'm on board, too. However, it must be said that both Gary the academic and me the ''story'' guy view cli-fi .....as does Stan Robinson... as a subgenre of sci-fi. "

THE VANDERMEER INTERVIEW

Do you think science fiction and speculative fiction are particularly well equipped to address present environmental issues?

JEFF: I don't think it's a particular domain of science fiction. I think it's something where we all have areas where we default to foundational assumptions that we should be questioning. I have my own spots like that, I'm absolutely sure, but it's certainly not when it comes to animal behavior science and things like that.

It's an issue for discussion because I think mainstream literary realism is just as well equipped. And I do want to push science fiction writers to think more about these issues because science fiction can also fall back on old defaults of plot and trope that are not useful to exploring these things. Sometimes you need new fictional modes. You hear the term cli-fi, for example, and I've heard some science fiction writers say, "Well, why do we need that when we have the term 'science fiction'?" Well, because it means climate fiction, and anyone can write climate fiction. It's not necessarily science fiction—it's not necessarily set in the future! And the reason is that it's happening right now. Climate change is happening right now. The future is happening right now.

I would also say that I'm seeing more and more mainstream literary writers writing in that space without necessarily writing science fiction. I think it's a good thing, and I think there needs to be more of a dialogue between "science fiction writers" and "mainstream literary writers" when there is that divide. I don't personally see that divide, I don't personally acknowledge it, and in my friendships and who I read I just don't really give a crap. But for those who feel like they're on one side of a divide or another, it can make communication difficult, and can make people not be in communication, and think that the "other side" is not actually dealing with issues that they are [dealing with]—if you actually read the work.