Creating Climate Fiction for Young Adults

This workshop will focus on developing ideas for Young Adult “Cli-Fi” (Climate Fiction) using a character first approach. There will be an emphasis on the importance of creating believable teenage leads in YA fiction, especially in Cli-Fi.

Extracts from successful YA Cli-FI such as Green Rising by Lauren James and Dry by Neal and Jarrod Shusterman. Facilitated discussion will explore how these texts represent teenage characters, as well as how they balance displaying the depth of the threat of climate change alongside creating space for hope for a teenage audience who are often impacted by climate anxiety.

Proposed Structure:

Section 1, Creating Character (one hour)

10 minutes reading: Begin by tutor reading aloud sections of YA Cli-Fi text (Dry and potentially another example) that demonstrate introducing believable teenage characters into situations impacted by climate change.

20 minutes discussion: Students then have 5 minutes to make their own notes on the…