Wednesday, August 28, 2013

UK Bookstores Set Tables for ‘Cli-Fi’ Books

******During the sweltering British summer of 2013, several bookstores in the UK did something that was a long time coming: They set up a dedicated ”cli-fi” tables with a simple yet eye-catching signs promoting fiction and non-fiction books with climate themes.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ We spoke with the marketing director at the one of the London bookshops about why she set up the cli fi tables and signs. When asked what the motivation was, she explained that after she read the Rodge Glass piece in the Guardian in May, she became very concerned about finding ways to promote climate fiction (and non fiction books) in her store. So she asked her design team to come up with some posters and signs, and tables were set up. Customer reaction was positive, she said.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Yes, our customers warmed to the idea, you might say, and there were no complaints," she said. "While climate novels and non fiction books about climate cover a lot of ground, from pro-AGW rants to skeptics books and even denialists rants, it is important that we shine the spotlight on climate books now and in the future. So our summer 2013 events were positive and we plan to repeat them over the course of the coming year, too. And sure, we do hope our example where in the UK will be reflected in the USA and Australia too, for bookstores there."-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Among the books displayed were Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” and James Lovelock’s “The Revenge of Gaia” as well as Stephen Emmott’s bestseller “10 Billion” sitting alongside such dystopic scenarios as J.G. Ballard’s “The Drowned World,” John Christopher’s “The Death of Grass,” Joe Dunthorne’s “Wild Abandon” and Liz Jensen’s “The Rapture.”----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Most of the books on the table are also available as e-books as well.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- These ‘cli-fi’ signs in-store may be the first of their kind anywhere in the now-warming world, and they follow extensive media coverage of the emerging cli-fi genre in TeleRead, The Guardian, the Financial Times, and The New Yorker.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Other cli-fi novels on the tables included Barbara Kingsolver’s”Flight Behavior” and and Ian McEwan’s “Solar.” -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Will other bookstores and book-selling websites around the world follow these sterling British bookstore examples and set up similar cli-fi sites at bookstores in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Sydney, Melbourne, Wellington and Paris? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Is this a trend or just one-off events and photo opps in the UK?------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Monday, August 26, 2013

BREAKING NEWS: London Bookstore Sets 'Cli-Fi' Table For Climate Books

BREAKING NEWS: London Bookstore Sets 'Cli-Fi' Table For Climate Books ...from TeleRead ... http://www.teleread.com/bookstore/london-bookstore-sets-cli-fi-table-for-climate-books/

Sunday, August 25, 2013

London's Foyles Bookstore Fronts 'Cli Fi' Table For Climate Books

During the sweltering summer of 2013, Foyles (St Pancras International store) in London set up a cli-fi table with a eye-catching sign that promotes non-fiction and fiction classics such as Rachel Carson's ''Silent Spring'' and James Lovelock's ''The Revenge of Gaia'', as well as Stephen Emmott's current bestseller ''10 Billion'' sitting alongside such dystopic scenarios as J.G. Ballard's ''The Drowned World'', John Christopher's ''The Death of Grass'', Joe Dunthorne's ''Wild Abandon'' and Liz Jensen's ''The Rapture''. The ''cli fi'' sign in-store may be the first of its kind anywhere in the now-warming world. Other cli fi books on the table included Barbara Kingsolver's FLIGHT BEHAVIOR and Ian McEwan's SOLAR. As the photo makes clear, this is first time that any bookstore anywhere in the known world has created a special "corner" or table spefically fearuring CLIMATE-THEMED novels and non-fiction reports. It is hoped that other bookstores around the world will follow Foyles' example and set up similar cli fi tables at bookstores in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Sydney, Melbournme, Wellington and Paris. ----------------------- http://pcillu101.blogspot.tw/2013/08/cli-fi-sign-in-foyles-bookstore-london.html

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Cli fi novelists Margaret Atwood and Nathaniel Rich at Kingston WritersFest in Canada on September 25

Cli fi novelists Margaret Atwood and Nathaniel Rich, being hailed by media critics as two leaders of the new cli fi genre, will appear together at the Grand Theatre in Kingston in Canada on Sept. 25, 2013 -- opening the Kingston WritersFest. It's just about a month before the first anniversary of Superstorm Sandy along the East Coast of the USA that served as a major wake up call about future storms and emergency preparedness (or the lack thereof)._____________________________________________ Ms. Atwood is poised to launch the third and final installment of her trilogy that began with ''Oryx and Crake'' and continued with ''The Year of the Flood'', which opened the first Kingston WritersFest in 2009. No one was talking cli-fi then. The press at that time just called her books sci-fi, a term that she herself famously rejected, even though her novels were winning SF awards [''The Handmaid’s Tale'' won the Arthur C. Clarke Award and was a finalist for both the Nebula and the Promethus Awards.]___________________________________________________________________________ Other cli fi writers, too, are warning us of the dangers ahead, already turning out stories of climatic catastrophe. Such fiction now has a real and legitimate name: cli-fi, a sub-genre of sci-fi or even a completely new genre of its own (take your pick) — a speculative story in which the narrative punch is supplied by a dramatic change in the physical world around us, brought on wholly or in part by the machinations of humans.______________________________________________ The term was coined by U.S. climate activist and public relations blogger and consultant Danny Bloom in 2008 and used by Scott Thill at Wired magazine in two movie reviews in 2009 and 2010. In 2011, Margaret Atwood re-tweeted it. [Rich told reporters that he never heard of the cli fi term before he started his book tour this spring.]_____________________________________________ This spring, The Guardian legitimized it, hailing Atwood and Rich as two leaders of the new genre. Both these Planet Earth-shattering authors be at the Kingston WritersFest. Should be a good festival.