On November 8, 2023, the NBCC hosted a Zoom panel discussion featuring authors of several newly released books about climate change, arguably the preeminent issue of our time. Our panelists—David Gessner, Kyle Meyaard-Schaap, Premee Mohamed, Christopher Preston, and Elizabeth Rush—covered topics from the authors’ own intersections with climate change to the literary market’s appetite for an often-somber topic.

Panelists:

The New York Times bestselling author of more than a dozen books on nature and the environment, David Gessner’s latest book, A Traveler’s Guide to the End of the World, explores what the world will look like for his college-age daughter when she turns sixty, the age he was at the start of the book.

Kyle Meyaard-Schaap comes to climate change from a perspective that is rarely discussed in mainstream media – that of an evangelical Christian. His call to Christians to take up the cause of climate change, Following Jesus In A Warming World, has the potential to move the needle of public opinion perhaps more than any current book on shelves now: There are millions of Evangelicals currently sitting on the wrong side of history.

Premee Mohamed is a Nebula, World Fantasy, and Aurora award-winning Indo-Caribbean scientist and speculative fiction author based in Edmonton, Alberta. In The Annual Migration of Clouds, Mohamed depicts human struggles on Earth after the climate change apocalypse has struck – and what our obligations are to each other in such a time and place.

Christopher Preston tackles climate change from two fascinating perspectives: as an environmental philosopher and as the author of Tenacious Beasts: Wildlife Recoveries That Change How We Think About Animals, a new book that shows how wildlife can serve as partners with humans in efforts to combat climate change.

A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Elizabeth Rush is releasing a new book that examines climate change from the perspective of motherhood – and an expedition to Antarctica. In The Quickening: Creation and Community at the Ends of the Earth, she documents the lives and work of fifty-seven scientists to a continent often at the heart of climate change narratives.

Moderator:
A former journalist, Christopher Lancette is a reemerging freelance writer focusing heavily on nature and the environment, and an NBCC member. He has written for more than 50 national and local publications and currently reviews for the Washington Independent Review of Books and EcoLit Books. Follow him on Twitter @chrislancette.