Violet Lichen Books

ECO24: The Year’s Best
Speculative Ecofiction

A must-read annual showcase of the best nature-based science fiction and fantasy short stories published around the world every year.

Featuring works by rising stars and established names, this anthology is an exploration of humanity’s deep relationships with other species and of our communal fears, grief, and passion as we try to protect our natural world—all told through the lens of the fantastic.

Ranging from literary science fiction and magical realism to dark fantasy and climate fiction, the stories form a unique snapshot of how some of the most brilliant and imaginative authors writing today are engaging with this extraordinary time in Earth’s natural history.

The inaugural edition, selected by award-winning editor and anthologist Marissa van Uden and a team of passionate ecofiction judges, features works by Eugen Bacon, E. Catherine Tobler, Hiron Ennes, K-Ming Chang, Kay Vaindal, Kelsea Yu, Renan Bernardo, and many other brilliant authors.

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Bookstores and other stockists: Interesting in ordering this title for your shelves? Please contact our distributor IPG at orders (at) ipgbooks.com

Praise for ECO24

“This first of a series exploring humanity’s ‘communal fears, grief, and passion as we try to protect our natural world’ is a triumph. 23 stellar tales offering creative and varied takes on the book’s themes. Every entry is equal parts thought-provoking, insightful, and impactful.”
— PUBLISHERS WEEKLY STARRED REVIEW

“Each author offers us a unique ecological niche to reveal what our present and future could be, ranging from wrenching disasters to elating possibilities of recovery. These stories are personal and lyrical, and the breadth of imagination and styles make this anthology dazzling. Every story is a gem.”
— SUE BURKE, AUTHOR OF SEMIOSIS

“I did not realize that there is enough sci-fi and horror fiction on the theme of ecology to fill a year’s best anthology, but it is better than that. ECO24 is filled to the brim with powerful and entertaining stories. Speculative fiction is uniquely positioned to explore the nature of our fragile relationship to the only planet in the cosmos that we depend on for life. The fantastic Marissa van Uden has built a collection of stories that demand attention and warn of futures we can still avoid, if we listen. A must read.”
— DAVID AGRANOFF, AUTHOR OF THE LAST NIGHT TO KILL NAZIS AND COHOST OF THE (PHILIP K DICK) DICKHEADS PODCAST

“A diverse collection unified by a common question: what is humanity’s role in the destruction and ultimate healing of nature?” 
— PRIYA CHAND, SCIENCE FICTION AUTHOR

“The diversity of stories reflects the diversity of the authors and also showcases the indefinable quality of ecofiction. As a whole, the collection challenges our definitions of nature and forces the reader to consider different perspectives.”
— BEN LOCKWOOD PH.D., ECOLOGIST AND PUBLISHER OF THE BRIEF ECOLOGY WEBSITE

Table of Contents

“In the Field” — Shelly Jones (The Future Fire Magazine)
“The Water Runner” — Eugen Bacon (Ecoceanic: Southern Flows, edited by Tarun K Saint and Francesco Verso)
“Ama’s Jungle” — K-Ming Chang (Orion Magazine)
“A Seder in Siberia” — Louis Evans (Grist Imagine 2200)
“Love, Scotland” — E.M. Faulds (Nova Scotia: New Speculative Fiction from Scotland Vol 2, edited by Neil Williamson & Andrew J. Wilson)
“Our Best Selves” — Hiron Ennes (Weird Horror Magazine)
“The Ghost Tenders of Chornobyl” — Nika Murphy (Apex Magazine)
“Swarm X1048 – Ethological Field Report: Canis Lupus Familiaris, ‘6’” — F.E. Choe (Clarkesworld Magazine)
“Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackened Husk of a Planet” — Adeline Wong (Strange Horizons)
“The Last Library” — Joshua Jones Lofflin (Astrolabe)
“Bodies” — Cat McMahan (Clarkesworld Magazine)
“Pig House” — Kay Vaindal (Seize the Press Magazine)
“The Plasticity of Being” — Renan Bernardo (Reactor Magazine)
“Batter and Pearl” — Steph Kwiatkowski (Diabolical Plots)
“Parasite’s Grief” — Katharine Tyndall (Fatal Flaw)
“Skittering Within” — Kelsea Yu (Apparition Lit)
“To Drive the Cold Winter Away” — E. Catherine Tobler (Strange Horizons)
“One with the Ground” — Guillermo G. Mendoza (Reckoning 8, edited by Knar Gavin and Waverly SM)
“We the People Excluding I” — Osahon Ize-Iyamu (Lightspeed Magazine)
“Father Time Dares You to Dream” — Trae Hawkins (New Year, New You: A Speculative Anthology of Reinvention, edited by Chris Campbell)
“Birdseed” — Matthew Freeman (Through the Portal: Tales From a Hopeful Dystopia, edited by Lynn Hutchinson Lee and Nina Munteau, published by Exile Editions)
“The Colonists” — Jennifer Hudak (Trollbreath Magazine)
“Mangrove Daughter” — E.M. Linden (Kaleidotrope)

Shortlist 2024:
Further Recommended Reading

A Cure for Solastalgia” by Em Starrett (Strange Horizons)
“A Descending Arctic Excavation of Us” by Sara S. Messenger (Diabolical Plots)
“BLIGHT” by Samir Sirk Morató (Other Worlds anthology, A Coup of Owls Press)
“Breathing Constellations” by Rich Larson (Reactor)
“Hunting for Rain” by Lyndsey Croal (Solarpunk Creatures anthology, Worldweaver Press)
“Root and Thorn and Broken Heart” by Addison Smith (Bitter Become the Fields: A Horror Anthology, Horns and Rattles Press)
“Ruminants,” by Kay Chronister (The Dark Magazine) – Honorable mention
“Sea Walkers” by Eliane Boey (Solarpunk Magazine)
“Slipstream” by Ash Huang (Ecotone)
“Some Have No Shield At All” by Karter Mycroft (The Off-Season: An Anthology of Coastal New Weird, Dark Matter Ink)
“Sonora’s Journey” by Kai Holmwood (Solarpunk Creatures anthology, Worldweaver Press)
“Symphony of the World’s Roots” by Damian Neri (The Deadlands)
“The City and the Styrofoam Sea” by Mar Vincent (Apparition Lit)
“The Ecological Impact of Resurrection: a Field Study” by Corey Farrenkopf (The Deadlands)
“The Passing” by Semilore Kaji-Hausa (Lacuna Magazine)
“The Rise” by Amelia Burton (The Crawling Moon: Queer Tales of Inescapable Dread anthology, Neon Hemlock)
“The Tangle (Did Not Kill Kitsault)” by K.A. Wiggins (Strange Horizons)
“Water Cycle” by Lauren C. Teffeau (Solarpunk Creatures anthology, Worldweaver Press)
“We Are the Forest” by Christopher R. Muscato (Sunshine Superhighway: Solar Sailings anthology, JayHenge Press)
“Who Walks With You” by Premee Mohamed (Grist Imagine 2200)
“Wood for the Trees” by Anne Staudenmaier (Soul: A Paranormal Anthology, Graveside Press)
“You Don’t Belong Where You Don’t Belong” by Kemi Ashing-Giwa (Reactor Magazine)