Introducing Sunvault: a kickstarting solarpunk and eco-spec anthology

There’s a new solarpunk anthology on the horizon, and it’s looking to publish in the summer of 2017.

Sunvault Anthology is a project currently being kickstarted by creators Phoebe Wagner and Brontë Christopher Wieland. They’re looking to publish solarpunk and eco-speculation short stories and poems, as well as black and white art nouveau coloring pages.

“Phoebe approached me with the idea shortly after we met, around September last year. We tossed around ideas for a long time, had a couple meetings, etc., but it wasn’t until last December that we got the opportunity to move forward. Upper Rubber Boot Books was open to anthology pitches, so we put together all our thoughts and sent it off. Joanne Merriam, URB owner, loved and, so we got started immediately.” Said Wieland.

Wagner was the one who was initially introduced to the idea of solarpunk.

“During my first semester at graduate school, I was a bit disillusioned with the current state of storytelling. Every book I picked up, whether literary fiction or speculative fiction, seemed depressing. Much of speculative fiction was concerned with the apocalypse or dystopia. Being a huge fan of Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, I believed fiction could be dark and hopeful, but I wasn’t seeing that reproduced in the books I was currently reading,” said Wagner.

Wagner read a post by tumblr user Kdhume that broke down aspects of solarpunk. She was interested in a -punk genre that dealt in solutions alongside survival.

Wagner’s and Weiland’s interest in solarpunk eventually culminated into the aspirations for Sunvault.

“Our goal is to give solarpunk and its revolutionary ideas a larger, collected platform. We thought an anthology would be the best way to do that. We also want this to be an opportunity for the SF community at large to engage in solarpunk and define it for themselves. We’re hoping that authors across the world, across all ages, genders, cultures, etc. will find solarpunk and show us what it means to them and what a solarpunk reality looks like from their perspective.” Said Wieland.

Both Wieland and Wagner hope to see solarpunk grow as a genre in the future.

“When I’m giving my students readings about how we are running out of water or the horrors of ocean dead zones, I always want to balance with hopeful stories because if we run out of hope, what will inspire us to change? Solarpunk can be that inspiration, so I hope it grows as large as cyberpunk & steampunk without losing the community atmosphere and organicness that makes solarpunk unique,” said Wagner.

Sunvault is currently kickstarting at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1917678918/sunvault-stories-of-solarpunk-and-eco-speculation

They can be found on facebook, twitter and tumblr, as well as on their wordpress at https://sunvaultantho.wordpress.com/