Tag: climate fiction

Author kōrero: Climate Fiction and Non-fiction – Springing to Life? Newtown Library, Friday 18 October, 6-7pm

Posted on

I’m very happy to be taking part in this event, organised by Wellington City Libraries, with three other writers tackling the climate crisis in different ways in their work. Here is the Library’s panui for the event:

One of the most important issues currently facing the planet is how we react to climate change, both as individuals and as a global community. One aspect of this is how our creative and scientific communities convey the issue.

To that end, we have gathered together four esteemed authors and scientists, who have directly connected to the subject, for a very special panel discussion at Ngā Puna Waiora | Newtown Library.

Panelists Erick Brenstrum, Mandy Hager, Frances Mountier and Tim Jones

Our panel features:

Tim Jones:

Tim Jones was born in England, grew up in Southland and lives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara / Wellington. He was awarded the NZSA Peter & Dianne Beatson Fellowship in 2022. His recent books include poetry collection New Sea Land (Mākaro Press, 2016) and climate fiction novel Emergency Weather (The Cuba Press, 2023). His poem “All the Summer” is included in Koe: An Aotearoa Ecopoetry Anthology, edited by Janet Newman and Robert Sullivan (Otago University Press, 2024).

Mandy Hager:

Mandy Hager is a multi-award winning author. In 2019 she received the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal, for life-time achievement and a distinguished contribution to NZ’s literature for young people. Her latest book, Strays and Waifs, is the first in an adult thriller series set on the Kapiti Coast.

Erick Brenstrum:

Meteorologist Erick Brenstrum worked for the New Zealand Meteorological Service for 43 years as a forecaster and educator. He has written about weather and climate for a number of newspapers and magazines including a column in New Zealand Geographic for 27 years. He is the author of The New Zealand Weather Book and Thalassa, a book of poems. He has lectured on meteorology at Victoria University and been a regular contributor on Radio New Zealand’s Nights program.

Frances Mountier:

Frances Mountier (Tangata Tiriti) is a climate justice activist and writer living in Newtown with her partner and children. Her writing has appeared in Turbine Kapohau, Sport, Takahē, JAAM, Hue & Cry, and Renegade House. This year, she is the Loxley Award recipient, asking “Is it time for a Climate Justice Union for Aotearoa?” She is working on a series of personal essays exploring parenthood, the housing crisis, climate justice, and possibilities for organising. 

Let us know you’re coming via the Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1293500868681731

Koe: An Aotearoa ecopoetry anthology launches on 22 August 2024 – plus recent writing news & events

Posted on

Koe: An Aotearoa ecopoetry anthology launches on 22 August – you’re invited to the launch!

I’m delighted that my poem “All That Summer”, first published in my collection New Sea Land (2016), has been selected for this new anthology of environmental poetry from Aotearoa / New Zealand, edited by Janet Newman and Robert Sullivan. I’ll be one of the poets reading at the Wellington launch, which is at
Meow, 9 Edward Street, Wellington from 6pm on Thursday, 22nd August – the same day the anthology becomes available in bookstores.

Please share the event with your friends, fellow poets, artists and activists on Facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/share/tgMg2PTEwB58NmCL/ – and please come along!

More about Koe

Koe invites readers to explore human connections with nature through a selection of over 100 poems composed in Aotearoa New Zealand from pre-European times to the present day. Including a substantial introduction and editors’ notes, Koe is the first anthology to provide a comprehensive overview of ecopoetic traditions in Aotearoa and to locate these traditions as part of the global ecopoetry scene.

In Koe, editors Janet Newman and Robert Sullivan reveal the genesis, development and heritage of a unique Aotearoa New Zealand ecopoetry derived from both traditional Māori poetry and the English poetry canon. Organised chronologically into three sections—representing the early years (poets born in or before the nineteenth century), the middle years of the twentieth century, and the twenty-first-century ‘now’—each segment presents a diverse array of voices. Across all these time frames, speaking from the conditions of their era, the poets delve into themes of humility, reverence and interconnectedness with the nonhuman world. They challenge traditional Eurocentric perspectives, highlight the significance of indigenous narratives, and wrestle with the impacts of European colonisation.

With more than 100 poems of celebration, elegy, apprehension, hope and activism, Koe gives us the history that holds our future.

New Poems Published in a fine line and Tarot

I’ve recently had new poems published in a fine line and Tarot – thanks very much to respective editors Gail Ingram and Kit Willett for selecting these poems for publication!

Check them out here:

a fine line (Autumn 2024): Tuesdays [a reprint], The Hedgehog Heart In Conflict With Itself [new]

Tarot 8: The Richter Scale (p. 30), Balcony (2023) (p. 47)

Where To From Here webinar for Our Climate Declaration

In July, I spoke to an Our Climate Declaration webinar about the nexus between climate writing and climate activism, referring both to my novel Emergency Weather and to the current political moment.. Thanks to Our Climate Declaration for the opportunity – check out the webinar below!

A Change In the Weather: The Climate Crisis In Poetry And Fiction

Photo of Dunedin writing event described in text

Tim Jones, Kay McKenzie Cooke, Michelle Elvy, Tunmise Adebowale, Mikaela Nyman, Jenny Powell – thanks to Kay for the photo!

I spent a couple of weeks in the south of the South Island in late June and early July, travelling with family and visiting friends. Along the way, I took part in a writing event in Dunedin, A Change In the Weather: The Climate Crisis In Poetry And Fiction on Thursday 4 July, which Michelle Elvy, Kay Mckenzie Cooke and I organised. The event was held in the Dunningham Suite at Dunedin Public Library – thanks very much to Ali and her team for setting the venue up & being such good hosts!

We had six readers:

Tim Jones
Kay McKenzie Cooke
Michelle Elvy
Tunmise Adebowale
Jenny Powell
Mikaela Nyman

and everyone read wonderful pieces! Then, afterwards, we had a really good discussion, covering both climate & environmental writing and climate activism, with the audience. Books got sold, drinks were drunk, nibbles nibbled (thanks to Kay and Robert for getting the drinks and nibbles) – it was a very positive event and I enjoyed it a lot. I lived in Dunedin from 1976 to 1993, and I felt very welcomed by the Dunedin literary community at this event.

Thanks to all our sponsors: The Cuba Press, Ōtepoti – He Puna Auaha / Dunedin City of Literature, Dunedin Public Libraries and the University Book Shop.

A Great Review for Emergency Weather + Two Books I Really Enjoyed Reading

Posted on

A good review is always nice to get, and especially when it’s unexpected. That’s why I was so pleased to see this review of Emergency Weather by Alyson Baker, and especially to see the praise she had for the plotting:

The plotting of Emergency Weather is brilliant. Allie’s harrowing attempt to reach Dunedin Airport, and Stephanie and Miranda’s nightmare tramping trip prepare the reader for what lies ahead. The three main characters weave around each other in passing before eventually ending up in the same place – a memorial service held after a climate catastrophe. The death toll is 43: “a good number for action: large enough to be shocking, small enough that the people killed could be distinguished in the public mind, could be seen as individuals rather than statistics.”

That is what Emergency Weather is about: how can people be motivated to act?

Want to buy a copy of Emergency Weather? Try your local independent bookstore or order direct from The Cuba Press!

PS: If your local library doesn’t stock it, please recommend it to them!



Two Books I Really Enjoyed

Light Keeping by Adrienne Jansen

Light Keeping is an understated novel of quiet power. Set against the ruthless cost-cutting that led to the replacement of lighthouse keepers with automation, it follows a family of lighthouse keepers as they navigate both personal tragedy and institutional indifference, with the latest generation trying to escape the long shadow of the past.

Adrienne Jansen does a great job of intertwining the personal upheavals of her protagonists’ lives with the vagaries of coastline, sea and weather. The boundary between land and sea on which the lonely lighthouse stands is blurred by both disaster and hope, as Jess and Robert struggle to keep the light in view.

Remains To Be Told: Dark Tales of Aotearoa, edited by Lee Murray

Remains To be Told is a very strong anthology of dark fantasy stories and poems from Aotearoa – and I’m not just saying that because one of my poems is including in this anthology! Editor Lee Murray has pulled together a group of authors known for their horror and dark fantasy work, including Neil Gaiman, and others better known for work outside the field, most notably Owen Marshall.

Many of the stories focus to be found in rural Aotearoa – this anthology shows that “New Zealand Gothic” is alive and well, yet it also has a strong and welcome focus on indigenous stories and indigenous mythology. If you want to experience what lies under the surface of the tourist promotional photos and Instagram influencers’ images of unspoiled nature and carefully curated tourism images, this is the anthology for you.

A Change in the Weather: The Climate Crisis in Poetry and Fiction

Posted on

Dunningham Suite, Dunedin Public Library, Thursday 4 July, 5.30-7.30pm

Doors open 5.30pm for drinks, nibbles and conversation
Readings start 6pm
Audience Q&A starts 7pm
We close around 7.30pm

I’m reading with Dunedin writers Tunmise Adebowale, Kay McKenzie Cooke, Michelle Elvy, Mikaela Nyman, Jenny Powell and Richard Reeve

Please come along!Poster for "A Change in the Weather" event described in text of post

Emergency Weather: A Storm Warning

Posted on

Tuesday 12 December 2023 dawned a fine summer’s day in Wellington. But in mid-afternoon, the weather changed. A southerly front raced up the country, bringing very strong winds, heavy rain and hail to Wellington and the Hutt. 

I was sitting at my desk, and I felt and saw the change: the temperature dropped abruptly, and sunshine was abruptly replaced by cascading rain. It was all over within 90 minutes, and despite over 20 mm of rain falling at our place within a few minutes, we got off fairly lightly.

But friends I’ve talked to since weren’t so lucky. One was inside a mall that rapidly flooded; another had part of their roof torn off their house – one of a number of buildings in the Hutt that suffered serious damage.

Author Andy Southall captures it well in his Goodreads review of my novel Emergency Weather:

“A day after finishing this book, a sudden and savage storm struck Wellington. At 2.50pm the sun was shining on what seemed to be a pleasant summer day. Ten minutes later the sky turned black, violent winds blew out windows, hail was smashing into the deck and sheets of water poured from the gutters. And that was in a less extreme part of the storm’s path. Elsewhere it was much, much worse.”

and this Radio New Zealand report gives the bigger picture.

My novel Emergency Weather begins and ends with storms – the first causes death and damage from north to south, while the second and stronger storm zeroes in on Wellington. Wellington has always been prone to storms, but climate change is loading the dice, making it more likely that when storms come, they will be damaging and destructive.

Emergency Weather cover at Petone beach

My novel is set against the context of a government in which (some) Ministers are at least trying to do the right thing. But the recent election, which Labour lost by a combination of its own timidity and many voters’ desire for something different, has brought to power a government including climate deniers, environmental vandals, and worshippers at the altar of the car. If climate change is on their agenda at all, it’s well below culture wars.

But physical reality doesn’t care about ideology. So long as we keep loading the climate dice by burning fossil fuels and forcing cows to produce milk, piss nitrates and burp methane, the storms and the fires and the flooding will get worse. If we stop, the climate will have a chance to recover. No amount of denialism changes that.

(Excuse me, Tim! It’s just before Christmas and you’re supposed to be encouraging people to buy your book!)

Err … buy my book if you’re looking for a good summer read – it’s not all, or even mostly, doom and gloom! – and have a great holiday! Here’s to lots of good reading, and good organising for change, in 2024.

Emergency Weather: Successfully Launched, Well Reviewed, and More to Come!

Posted on

Successfully Launched

Mandy Hager launches Emergency Weather
Mandy Hager launches Emergency Weather. Photo: Stephen Olsen

I was nervous heading into the launch of Emergency Weather. Unity is a great place for a launch, but it looks very empty if no-one comes – and there were other launches, as well as election meetings, on in downtown Wellington at the same time.

I needn’t have worried! Around 100 lovely people came to the launch, we sold plenty of books and I had a great time. It was good to see old friends, new friends, and people I’d never seen before!

Kate from Unity Books introduced the launch, then we heard from Paul from The Cuba Press and Cadence from the Whitireia Publishing programme before the book was launched by author Mandy Hager, whose speech really moved me. Then it was time for me to speak, read the very beginning of the novel, and sign lots of copies! If you missed the launch, the YouTube video is available or you can read Stephen Olsen’s report: https://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=155655 (he also took the photo above).

If you didn’t make the launch but would like to get on trend and buy a copy of Emergency Weather, it’s available:

* At Unity Books and Good Books in Wellington, and other independent bookshops nationwide, including UBS in Dunedin – if it’s not available from your nearest independent bookshop or Paper Plus, please ask them to order it in.

* Directly from The Cuba Press: https://thecubapress.nz/shop/emergency-weather/

* From Wheelers: https://www.wheelers.co.nz/books/9781988595726-emergency-weather/

* Through the new NZ BookHub site, launched three days after my book!

Tim Jones signs a copy of Emergency Weather
Tim Jones signs a copy of Emergency Weather (photo: Kate, Unity Books)

Well Reviewed

It’s also been good – and again, a testament to the hard work of The Cuba Press and Whitireia Publishing – to see reviews of Emergency Weather appearing. Online reviews:

Radio New Zealand: https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018910488/book-critic-catherine-roberston

Kete: https://www.ketebooks.co.nz/all-book-reviews/emergency-weather-jones

Aotearoa Review of Books: https://www.nzreviewofbooks.com/emergency-weather-by-tim-jones/

You can help a lot by adding the book to your Goodreads library and rating or reviewing it: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/198972056-emergency-weather

More to Come

It’s not quite the Taylor Swift Eras Tour, but here are some upcoming Wellington events I’m involved in that you’re warmly invited to attend:

Unity Books Panel, Wednesday 18 October, 12.30-1.30pm: “Talking Up a Storm: The Making of Emergency Weather”: https://www.facebook.com/events/288705720676072/ (Facebook event link). Find out how a novel is written, edited, published and marketed.

Verb Wellington event, 11 November, 3-5pm – this one is for Remains to be Told, but I might weave in a mention or two of Emergency Weather as well.

Emergency Weather update and all about anthologies! 

Posted on

Emergency Weather Update

My new climate fiction novel Emergency Weather is being launched this Wednesday, 4 October! I’d love to see you at the launch – 6pm at Unity Books Wellington: https://www.facebook.com/events/667791528368999

Emergency Weather is already appearing in bookshops. In Wellington, it’s been spotted in Unity (see below) and Good Books. If your local bookshop doesn’t have it, please ask them to order it in. In case they need it, the ISBN is 978-1-98-859572-6.

The book’s also available online from The Cuba Press shop: https://thecubapress.nz/shop/emergency-weather/

Neil Johnstone of Wellington City Libraries interviewed me about EW – see the interview:

and read the blog: https://www.wcl.govt.nz/blog/index.php/2023/09/29/interview-emergency-weather-author-tim-jones/

The Herald’s Canvas magazine published my article about climate fiction and climate reality – it’s firewalled, but also available in the print edition. More coverage to come!

If you read Emergency Weather and like it, please leave a review on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/198972056-emergency-weather

All About Anthologies

Not really all about anthologies, but about two of them:

The Penguin New Zealand Anthology: 50 stories for 50 years in Aotearoa

I’m very pleased that Penguin Books selected my story “The New Neighbours” from my second short story collection, Transported, to represent 2008 in this anthology, which is on sale from 3 October.

Remains To Be Told: Dark Tales of Aotearoa

This anthology of dark NZ fiction and poetry includes my poem “Guiding Star”. Its New Zealand launch is at Wellington’s Verb Festival on 11 November and I’m looking forward to taking part, with many of the other Wellington-region authors represented. Come along if you can!

Invitation to the launch of my new novel Emergency Weather

Posted on

You are officially invited to the launch of my new climate fiction novel Emergency Weather – and here’s a look at the cover!

Emergency Weather launch invitation and cover image

The launch will take place on Wednesday 4 October at Unity Books Wellington, 57 Willis St, from 6pm – please encourage your friends to come along too!

Here is the Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/667791528368999

Please sign up for this if you use Facebook, as it helps us know numbers attending.

Emergency Weather will be available from all good bookshops from 2 October – and also through https://thecubapress.nz/shop/

The NZSA Peter & Dianne Beatson Fellowship

Posted on

A few weeks ago, I heard my application for the 2022 New Zealand Society of Authors Peter & Dianne Beatson Fellowship had been successful – which was a wonderful surprise!

As I told the New Zealand Society of Authors when they announced the news:

“I’m honoured and delighted to receive the NZSA Peter and Dianne Beatson Fellowship for 2022. It’s great that this fellowship recognises the importance of supporting mid-career and senior authors, and I’m honoured to follow in the footsteps of the wonderful authors who have previously received it. I’d also like to thank the judges for selecting my project, and to thank Peter Beatson and The New Zealand Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi O Aotearoa (PEN NZ Inc).”

“I’ll be using the funding, and the writing time it allows, to help me work on revisions to my novel in progress, which has the working title ‘Emergency Weather‘. It’s a near-future climate fiction novel that looks at what it’s like for ordinary people to be addressing – or trying to avoid addressing – the climate emergency as the weather gets more extreme, the seas rise, and politicians continue to run round in tight little circles of inaction.”

I’m very grateful to the judging panel for choosing my project. I’ve started on the revisions to my novel – it’s hard work, but I’m enjoying it. I hope to have more good news to report about “Emergency Weather” in 2023.

Novella Review: “A Sky of Wretched Shells,” by Mark Blackham

Posted on

Cover image of "A Sky of Wretched Shells", a novella by Mark Blackham


Mark Blackham’s A Sky of Wretched Shells is the third book in The Cuba Press’ novella series, following my novella Where We Land and Zirk van den Berg’s I Wish, I Wish. Both Where We Land and A Sky of Wretched Shells are climate fiction novellas, but they’re very different: Where We Land is about our near-future response to climate change, while A Sky of Wretched Shells is set further in the future, when most of the world has fallen victim to ecological disaster and only one island offers hope for survival.

On the island of Woleai, 15-year-old Mala and his people live in relative peace and safety as the rest of the world falls apart. The arrival of two Western outsiders brings an end to this fragile equilibrium.

I won’t say more about the plot, because a lot happens in this novella that it would be a shame to spoil. I will say that there’s some really beautiful descriptive writing and imagery in A Sky of Wretched Shells: I got a strong sense of place from Mark Blackham’s novella.

Nevertheless, I struggled with some of the choices the central character, Mala, made – from my point of view, he persistently makes choices that puts his island and his people at greater risk. (Though my decision-making at age 15 may not have been the greatest, either, and the end of the novel suggests that he has made better choices than it first appears.)

The ending took the story in directions I didn’t expect, reactivating the sense of wonder I used to get as a teenager from reading science fiction, even as my adult eye was casting a more sceptical gaze over proceedings. So I ended the novella with mixed feelings: but given the quality of his descriptive writing and the scope of his imagination, I’m keen to see what stories Mark Blackham writes next.