Climate change fiction (cli-fi) has become very popular recently as issues related to climate change and global warming is gaining increasing attention in various sectors around the world.

A conference was held at the Assam Engineering Institute’s Ground at Chandmari to launch a discussion on climate change fiction (cli-fi) in Assam and to discuss in detail the contributions of Indian writers and novelists to this genre. A panel seminar on “Climate Change Fiction (Cli-Fi): Representation of Global Warming in Literature and Imagination of the Future of Climate Change” was held at Jonaki Hall, Assam Book Fair today.

The seminar was jointly organized by the Center for Environment and Climate Action Foundation (CECAF) and the Interdisciplinary Climate Research Center (ICRC) of Cotton University with Dr. Rahul Mahanta, eminent novelist-physician Dr. Nandita Devi, writer-critic-translator-professor Dr. Rakhi Kalita Moral, writer-translator-professor Dr. Mary Barua and storyteller-writer-professor Juri Barua attending as panelists. The seminar was moderated by Dr. Vijay Krishna Chetia, author, researcher and environmentalist.

The panelists discussed on a wide range of topics including why climate fiction writers write about climate change, how effectively the dystopia sub-genre represents climate change and possible urban futures, and how Indian writers are coming forward for public conversation on climate change.