Literary agent Emma Dries
On climate-focused writing and activism-related topics
Last week I interviewed literary agent Emma Dries for Writers on Writing. After we finished, I still had a couple of lingering questions. Emma was kind enough to respond. Here you go…
Will you say more about the climate-focused writing you’re interested in seeing? Does it include fiction, and if so, are there any cli-fi novels you especially liked?
The climate crisis is omnipresent and infects all of our lives nowadays, whether or not we choose to let our political priorities reflect that. Still, for a variety of reasons, we haven't completely figured out how to write about it. I love writers who are able to evoke the current state of affairs without a moralizing or nihilistic tone, who use extreme weather as a gravitational force for a novel—as Jesmyn Ward did with Hurricane Katrina in Salvage the Bones —while avoiding contrivance. I am a major evangelist for Kim Stanley Robinson's Ministry for the Future: though it begins with one of the most brutal and arresting opening chapters I've ever read, a speculative wet-bulb event in India that kills millions, if you can make it past that, the book is incredibly ambitious and ultimately somewhat hopeful. Some other favorites include Bangkok Wakes to Rain by Pitchaya Sudbanthad, The Children's Bible by Lydia Millet and Weather by Jenny Offill. Weather is probably the best evocation of the ambient dread climate change instills in those of us who are privileged enough to be mostly shielded (for now) from its worst damages, but generally speaking, I am more interested in its asymmetric impacts on the marginalized.
What about other activism-related topics (animal activism, social activism, etc). Are these of interest in fiction and nonfiction?
Definitely. I'm here for progressive writing, books that tackle wealth inequality, institutional corruption, racial justice, Big Pharma, the military and prison industrial complex, the siege on reproductive rights, etc. Such uplifting material!
You can listen to my interview with Emma on Writers on Writing and you can find out more about her here.
I listened to & really appreciated this interview Barbara! Thanks for asking all the questions I would ask, and more. Emma sounds like she would be wonderful to work with. And I am taking to heart her advice to read aloud my entire novel as I do my next round of edits. I believe, hope, that after 2+ years of work the novel is fully baked. The reading aloud will be a good test. Also appreciate that you ask about older authors, given I’m seeking to ‘debut’ at 63😀appreciate all and Marrie do at Writers on Writing. I am a devoted listener (and learn so much!)