Imagine 2200

Presented here are the winners and finalist of Grist's climate fiction competition. They all feature people who are coping or trying to cope with a world where more extreme climate change is underway or has happened. The ones I enjoyed are by Jamie Liu, Louis Evans, Cameron Neil Ishee, Rae Mariz, Sanjana Sekhar, Karen Engelsen and by Guglielmo Miccolupi and Laura C Zanetti-Domingues.

• "To Labor for the Hive" by Jamie Liu: an interesting story of a woman who takes care of bees. One day she reluctantly enrols in a programme to monitor the weather based on the behaviour of her bees. That would lead to a relationship with a researcher through messaging and, perhaps an opening up after her last relationship ended.

• "The Last Almond" by Zoe Young: heavy rains are forecast, and a farmer's land has to be sacrificed to help alleviate the flood. The farmer prepares and remember the previous time a flood caused widespread damage and personal loss.

• "A Seder in Siberia" by Louis Evans: a family starts the ceremonial dinner with a missing family member, only for him (the eldest brother) to turn up after it starts. The celebration turns tense as family secrets become revealed as the brother explains why he left and why he has now returned, and it involves an event that their father was involved that the resulted in where the family is located now.

• "Accensa Domo Proximi" by Cameron Neil Ishee: as people converge to see an artist finally finish an unknown sculpture, one person recognizes it for what it is and realizes the artist has given the community a remembrance of places lost to the rising sea.

• "Gifts We Give to the Sea" by Dinara Tengri: a son returns to his home near the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan, in the hopes of reconnecting with his family and, perhaps, help bring part of the sea back to life.

• "The Imperfect Blue Marble" by Rae Mariz: a curious child is given the gift of a blue marble by a glassblower. But what he does next with it has echoes with how we should treat another blue marble.

• "Cabbage Koora: A Prognostic Autobiography" by Sanjana Sekhar: a story spanning generations as a family spread around the world bond over virtual meetings where they discuss growing their favourite traditional vegetable, in a world where growing things and travelling around gets increasingly difficult in a warming world.

• "La Sirène" by Karen Engelsen: in a future of rising sea levels and more deadly storms, a religious facility at sea gives shelter to people who have been affected by pollution, causing them to not develop proper legs. A priest at the shelter dreams about the sea goddess, who will try to destroy them for when humans have done to the sea; unless he can find a way to work with the sea with the help of the affected people.

• "The Long In-Between" Andrew Kenneson: a person decides to re-wild his patch of land. But he has to deal with neighbours who don't agree with his methods.

• "A Gift of Coconuts" by Melissa Gunn: as a storm hits an island, one family not only has to worry about surviving it, but also about the fate of their father who was out in a boat. As it turns out, one product on the island would have a hand in helping the father find the island again.

• "Stasis" by Lovinia Summer: a person undergoes an unusual transformation in preparation for a journey of their village from a desert to the sea: a transformation that would involve a change in microbiome.

• "The Blossoming" by Guglielmo Miccolupi, Laura C Zanetti-Domingues: a somewhat hilarious story of a cyclist running away from an angry bull, and then from a flock of sheep. In a flashback, we see who the cyclists, who was wondering what to do with his life, got involved in the situation, which would involve a bunch of rare plants.