For four years and counting, a nonprofit climate journalism site called Grist has run an amazing climate fiction contest called Imagine 2200. In January, Grist announced the 2025 winners of this contest. You can read the winning stories for free at Imagine 2200: The 2025 Collection.
Now that the 2025 collection is available, I’m pleased to share my review. I normally only review published print books and ebooks, not web-based short story collections. But since this is such an important collection, I’m going to review it now rather than waiting to see if they turn it into a published book.
What is Imagine 2200?
Imagine 2200 is a climate fiction contest that invites new and independent writers to submit short stories that imagine what the future will look like if and when climate solutions are implemented.
As a long-time Grist reader and climate fiction author and reviewer, I’ve been following Imagine 2200 from the beginning. This contest and the resulting short story collections have become my favorite way to find new climate fiction short stories and share them with the world.
So far, there have been four Imagine 2200 contests. After each contest, they announce the winners and make the winning stories available to read for free on their website. In addition to the wonderful fiction itself, each story features beautiful artwork inspired by the story. They’ve also published two of the sets of winning stories as short fiction collections available in paperback and ebook formats: Afterglow: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors and Metamorphosis: Climate Fiction for a Better Future.
What makes Imagine 2200 special?
Really, any good climate fiction contest would have a special place in my heart. Years ago, I was obsessed with the Everything Change contest and its resulting short story anthologies. I still recommend them and appreciate their contributions to the genre of climate fiction. You can read them for free at the Imagination and Climate Futures Initiative at ASU.
But Imagine 2200 isn’t just another broad climate fiction contest. Their focus on cultural diversity, queer representation, and creative climate solutions to the climate crisis sets them apart from any other climate fiction contest or publication I’ve seen.
We aim to showcase stories of creative climate solutions and community-centered adaptations, with an emphasis on uplifting voices and cultures from the communities most impacted by the climate crisis. Imagine 2200 is an invitation to writers and readers alike to imagine a future in which solutions to the climate crisis flourish and help bring about radical improvements to our world.
Inspired by Afrofuturism, as well as Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, disabled, feminist, and queer futurisms, Imagine is also grounded in hopepunk and solarpunk — literary genres that uplift equitable climate solutions and continued service to one’s community, even in the face of despair.
About Grist’s Imagine 2200 climate fiction initiative
What stories are included in Imagine 2200: The 2025 Collection?
Imagine 2200: The 2025 Collection features twelve climate fiction short stories. This includes the stories that won first, second, and third place in the contest along with the top nine runners up.
Personally, I enjoy reading all of the stories. If you’re looking for stories on a specific topic or theme, though, reading more detailed summaries may help you choose which story to read first (or at all). Therefore, I’ve written a mini-review of each story.
Meet Me Under the Molokhia
I can definitely see why Meet Me Under the Molokhia won first place! It’s set in Lebanon in a future where the world is recovering from the ecological and social destruction caused by colonialism, industrial pollution, and other ills. A young seed researcher encounters a mysterious spirit out in the molokhia fields during the course of her research. The story touches on her cultural and religious background, queer relationships and identities, and the scientific research and remediation practices of her work. It somehow manages to be both understated and profound in both its explorations of culture, love, sense of place, and ecological remediation.
Last Tuesday, for Eternity
Intelligent robots are a staple of science fiction, but most climate fiction doesn’t include them. Last Tuesday, for Eternity is a sweet, remarkably creative, and thought-provoking tale about a human and robot couple coming to terms with both their emerging love and their different relationships to death and dying. This is one of the few robot stories I’ve read that situates the potential immortality of artificial consciousness in the context of ecological sustainability. The resulting story is both a touching love story and a thoughtful reflection on life, death, and natural cycles.
Mousedeer Versus the Ghost Ships
Mousedeer Versus the Ghost Ships centers around the plucky crew of a ship called Mousedeer in the coastal waters of Southeast Asia. They spend their days gathering necessary supplies, supporting the ecological recovery of the region, and fending off “ghost ships” – automated boats that sail the ocean looking for resources to extract and bring back to wealthy human masters who may no longer be around to benefit from their hauls. Despite the post-collapse setting, there are plenty of high-tech gadgets that play important roles in the plot, including a system to communicate with dolphins and a memory crystal that mimics the consciousness of a deceased crewmate. It’s a great combination of high seas adventure, ecological remediation, and reflection on the nature of consciousness and the cycles of life.
A Eulogy for Each and Every End
Death is a natural part of life. A Eulogy for Each and Every End explores how people in an ecological community in Brazil handle the cultural role of death and the bodies of the dead in a climate-transformed future. The solution they come up with is an elegant combination of ecological remediation and a delicate personalized honoring of the life story of the recently deceased. I appreciated the gentle reverence for the dead shown by the undertakers, the many creative details of the story and setting, the central role of science in the organization of their community, and the subtle but powerful queer representation, including a hint of polyamory.
Our Continuity, Each of Us Raindrops
Our Continuity, Each of Us Raindrops may be the first climate fiction short story I’ve encountered featuring a telepresence robot as a main character. Two brothers travel across the devastated lands of a post-collapse America in search of endangered species to document. One brother travels in person while the other uses a drone to make the journey. It’s a quirky and engaging story about family, technology, American culture, and the importance of observing and protecting endangered species while we can.
Plantains in Heaven
Plantains in Heaven is the latest in an emerging trend in climate fiction – the exploration of what life may be like in major cities that succumb to flooding and rising sea levels. When portions of a city become submerged permanently, the residents who lack the wealth or the desire to relocate learn to adapt to the changing conditions. Even as the buildings decay and gradually collapse around them, two young people in West London still find love and hope amidst the ruins.
Tangles in the Weave
When a species of animals goes extinct, what happens to the animal spirits who no longer have bodies of that species to be reborn into? Tangles in the Weave is a fascinating tale that explores the idea that all living beings are connected through an unseen web of life. Humans can experience a conscious connection with this web, including the spirits of animal species that have gone extinct. This will be of particular interest to spiritually-minded readers, but even readers who are more atheistic or agnostic may find great beauty in the metaphors of interconnection in this story.
The Isle of Beautiful Waters
The Isle of Beautiful Waters is a story about storytelling! A Caribbean family braces for severe weather as a hurricane descends upon the region. Once they’ve prepared their home and community for the storm, they pass the time by telling stories about their family history and the legends of the island’s origins. The result is a powerful blend of climate themes, Caribbean culture, and the relatable and timeless experience of sitting down with loved ones during a storm to tell stories.
The Ones Left Behind
What role do family traditions and businesses play in a city and society undergoing dramatic change? The Ones Left Behind is the story of a young woman in New York City running her family’s Sichuan restaurant. It’s a fascinating exploration of family traditions and connections, the potential connections between restaurants and local ecological growing practices, and the balance between dedication to work life and openness to the tender joys of young love.
This View From Here
Urban planning plays a vital role in our response to the climate crisis. This View From Here tells the story of a young woman who grew up in a small town and decides to move to a far away city to finish her urban planning program. Her love of cities and desire to make positive contributions to society come into conflict with her relationship with her father and aunt and her love of the land where she grew up.
To Rescue a Self
In To Rescue a Self, a young woman travels to Lagos for the Green Nigeria Youths Fellowship. Her story explores the history and potential future of Lagos and Nigeria, the importance of documenting and supporting Indigenous ways of living and knowing, mental health, and young love.
We Cast Our Eyes to the Unknowable Now
We Cast Our Eyes to the Unknowable Now explores the future of Koreatown in Los Angeles. A young woman comes home from work to discover that her teenage sister has disappeared. She discovers that her sister has been working on an ecological remediation project in a large and deep fissure in the ground that opened up in the neighborhood years ago in the wake of an earthquake.
Where can I read all of the Imagine 2200 stories?
You can read all of the stories from all of the Imagine 2200 contests at the Imagine 2200 page on Grist. If you prefer reading in print book or ebook formats, be sure to check out the two published Imagine 2200 short story collections: Afterglow: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors and Metamorphosis: Climate Fiction for a Better Future.
When is the next Imagine 2200 contest?
Good question! As of this writing, the organizers of Imagine 2200 haven’t announced if and when the next contest will take place. If you’d like to be among the first people to hear about the next contest, be sure to sign up for Imagine 2200 email updates.
In the meantime, whether you’re an avid climate fiction reader or an aspiring climate fiction writer, be sure to check out my reading list of free climate change books.
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