"I’ve driven between the Panhandle of Florida and New England many times. I’ve observed a lot of weather during these drives: everything from tornado warnings to excess heat and water. I wanted to write about the changing climate." - Author Kate Risse
Check out RITC's interview with
Kate Risse, author of "Inland." This book is a novel about a catastrophic sea level rise along the Eastern Seaboard. Two families are separated and spends a good part of the novel trying to reunite while also surviving and adapting
to the inundation. It is set in the year 2026. The fictional world I have created very much resembles our world today, but you sense the beginning of infrastructure, community and resources unraveling with the weather.
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Interview:
RITC: What inspired you to write this book?
Author: I’ve driven between the Panhandle of Florida and New England many times. I’ve observed a lot of weather during these drives: everything from tornado warnings to excess heat and water. I wanted to write about the changing climate. In 2018, when the category 5 Hurricane Michael hit the barrier island along the Florida Panhandle, where I spend time with my family, I saw the damage it left, felt the tremendous force of nature on communities, and wanted to take the idea of a warming world further from 2018 and imagine larger changes in the near future.
RITC: What messages or themes do you hope readers take away from your book?
Author: Hope, resiliency, how do we plan for these increasing weather events, how do we slow down the changes. Can we? How do we raise awareness of the changes in temperature and weather patterns that are now irrefutable? 127 F in the suburbs of Delhi, India? What is the role of art and cultural production in these real-world events? Do they help? Hinder and distract? Mobilize? Or are we just talking pure entertainment?
RITC: What other books have you written or what's your next writing project?
Author: Possibly a sequel, a thriller, or a non-fiction book. Perhaps something based in Latin America.
RITC: What advice would you give to new writers?
Author: Listen to your gut, go with what you know and do a lot of research. When you hear: “this is what the market wants,” take it with a grain of salt. Get up early or find a good wedge of time to write—rather than a half our here and there. Joining a writing group can be helpful too.
RITC: Who's your favorite writer and outside of your book, what other book would you recommend? and why?
Author: I’ve been reading a lot of climate fiction (cli-fi) these days: there are so many. I have favorite books rather than writers: El llano en llamas (Juan Rulfo); The Snow Leopard (Peter Matthiessen); Shadow of the Wind (Carlos Ruiz Zafón); Parable of the Sower (Octavia Butler); Mosén Millán (Ramón Sender); Island of the Blue Dolphins (Scott O’Dell); Los Dzules (probably 16 th century high Mayan priests).
The author recommends: https://350.org/?r=US&c=NA
Regarding cli-fi please read the science as well as the fiction!
Book Trailer
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