Interviewed by Justine Norton-Kertson
For Issue #18 of Solarpunk Magazine, we interviewed BrightFlame about her recently released solarpunk fantasy novel, The Working.
Solarpunk Magazine: The Working features a modern coven working to prevent an eco-cataclysm. Can you talk about the inspiration behind merging magic with environmental activism in this story?
BrightFlame: The short answer: magic makes mainstream activism more effective. With more detail:
As part of an activist tradition of Witchcraft (Reclaiming Tradition), magic and activism are integrally connected for me. I practice the kind of magical activism I wove into The Working.
Magic is all about sensing and shaping energy. Everything—ethereal to physical—is comprised of energy. The characters in The Working act in the astral realm as well as the physical—as do I. The astral is a place of pure energy and pure potential where everything is possible and anything can be created. It’s a place where different realms meet and time is not linear.
Such good fodder for an exciting contemporary fantasy!
All that exists in our physical world has a root in the astral—so working in the astral realm to affect the ills of the world makes action in the physical realm much more effective.
Like me, the coven connects with Allies in the astral. The creature the coven encounters emanates from the astral.
As well as working on the astral, magical activism takes place in the tangible world including in the streets. For instance, we might help cohere and focus energy during a protest through a spontaneous spiral dance—like the coven instigates in a scene in The Working. Or, like in another scene, we might drum and chant to amplify the energy of a protest. As emphasized in The Working, we assure we’re grounded and centered whenever practicing magic, including magical activism.
Following the US election, I sent out a newsletter that mentions the secret embedded in The Working: the energy practice that the coven use at the novel’s climax is one that you can use as well. The more people who practice what I call the crystal star, the more effect we’ll collectively have. It’s also good for health, intuition, and getting unstuck.
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SPM: The novel has been described as a mix of solarpunk and lunarpunk. How do these two subgenres intersect in The Working, and how did you blend themes of magic, spirituality, and ecofeminism into the narrative?
BrightFlame: For me, lunarpunk is not separable from solarpunk. As I say in “The Nonbinary Nature of Solarpunk/Lunarpunk” on Solarpunk Station they are not a binary and not opposites. Anyway, binary thinking is a characteristic of authoritarianism, white supremacy, and religious dogma: it doesn’t fit with a solarpunk vibe. And if we separate lunarpunk from the amorphous, pluralistic solarpunk memetic engine (Jay Springett’s term), the container becomes less rich, the engine has less fuel. My conclusion in that article and elsewhere: just call all of it solarpunk.
Still, I second-guessed myself when labeling my book. First I wondered if there were enough solarpunk qualities in The Working to label it solarpunk. Certainly it’s full of spirituality, so squarely lunarpunk. Though The Working is not as solarpunk as my futurist stories. But what does “not as solarpunk” mean? I didn’t want to quantify solarpunk!
The novel is rooted in our present, troubled world, not an optopian future. Yet it has a strong theme of community and ecofeminism, and the coven fights the things solarpunk stands against. The novel ends on a strong solarpunk note. I affirmed my original view: it is solarpunk.
I wove in magic because it’s one tool for changing the world and should be part of solarpunk just like any other technology that’s aligned with Nature. Magic is typically part of the fantasy genre—why not model real magic?
It’s fine with me for readers to view the magic in The Working as fantastical rather than real, by the way. It’s was my intention to craft an exciting, immersive story and leave readers with hope. That folx can learn about real magical practice is a sprinkled-in bonus.
Magic, spirituality, and ecofeminism are all interconnected. Magic is a practice within my Earth-based spirituality, which is ecofeminist. Ecofeminism rejects the unbalanced, intellectual versions of ecology and feminism that remove spirit.
One of the founding principles of ecofeminism is that the Earth is sacred and we—humans and nonhumans alike—are the Earth. I wanted readers to feel this in my story. Feel it in a very visceral way. In some of the novel’s scenes, the narrative is like an immersive journey such as I might lead in ritual. The coven opens their energy in connection and relationship with the natural world.
While I didn’t name Godds I work with and none of the Goddesses I depicted are exactly those I work with, some of their messages and teachings made their way into The Working—and I assure you I checked in with the Godds before including such things! They and my Ancestors helped craft the story.
SPM: Your characters, like Betsy and the other witches, face not only magical dilemmas but also the threat of a fracked gas pipeline. How did you approach integrating real-world environmental issues into a speculative fiction framework?
BrightFlame: First, a shout out to author Kat Howard who offered editorial advice on an earlier draft. She suggested I ground some of the Old Ones’ teachings in the physical world and add a more tangible and specific obstacle for the coven than the more nebulous one of climate change. Thus, I added the pipeline plot, which is based on a real fight against a pipeline in my region.
The main plot seeks to answer the question I set out for myself: What is the antidote to the horrors and ills of our world? How do we fight those who cause not only the climate crisis but all the interconnected harms and injustices? For the book, I set out to find the magical Working. This plot was in place from the beginning.
By the way, I always knew this would be a contemporary fantasy set in the real world.
I wove the two plots, alternating them through the story to keep the tension. It took years of writing and asking, of speaking with my Ancestors and various Goddesses to find the Working. And it took at least a year of trying different versions for the two plots to come together in a fulfilling ending that was true to my magic and spirituality.
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SPM: Your fiction has appeared in various solarpunk anthologies, and you’ve described solarpunk as a way of life. What drew you to solarpunk as a movement and a literary genre, and how do you see it evolving in the future?
BrightFlame: In 2016, I co-offered a set of workshops, “Stories for the Future,” with author, Witch, and activist Starhawk. As part of the workshop, Starhawk led an immersive journey (a visualization) to visit those futures. I could practically taste the future I desired, which led to my incorporating such curriculum in my offerings for magical and mundane audiences.
When author Cameron Roberson (aka Rob Cameron, a lead organizer of Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers that I’m part of) first told me about solarpunk in 2019, I realized it described my teaching, my writing, and my life. My bio begins: I write, teach, and make magic for just, regenerative futures. Solarpunk!
Then I began writing the future I had visioned in 2016. Thanks to awesome feedback from BSFW friends, four of my stories set in the same solarpunk future that I call the Threads have been published and two more are pending.
Writing solarpunk helps bring me back to hope, especially in challenging times when I can tilt into despair.
How will solarpunk evolve? It’s a dynamic movement and genre, just like my evolving spiritual tradition. I agree with those who note a need to write solarpunk stories that show a realistic trajectory to an optimistic future. And the need to show present-day solarpunk in action. At the same time, I wouldn’t want to lose stories that imagine bright futures. These expand on what’s possible and engage all our imaginations.
I think we’ll continue to see solarpunk projects and communities blossom around the world, forming a rich web that emphasizes connecting across groups to share ideas and resources. These actions seed stories and stories seed action.
Because solarpunk is a large, amorphous container that is a generative engine, it’s not only continually renewing, it’s also self-correcting. For instance, solarpunks push back on the notion that crypto fits in the container. Seems to me it’s mostly been edged out. Hopefully AI creation will go the same way.
Just as interaction among ideas in the container generates new ideas, I picture inputs that clash with the commonly held ideas and qualities of solarpunk banging off these ideas and ultimately being expelled.
At the same time, these serve as grit in the oyster and also help solarpunk evolve.
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SPM: As a member of the Climate Fiction Writers League, how do you balance the urgent messaging of climate change with the hopeful futures depicted in solarpunk?
BrightFlame: There is room for many authors and creators and a variety of lenses in climate fiction. Solarpunk is one lens. It’s the combination of all the projects and writing that sum to hope and action.
We need action at all levels, inside and outside of the system. We need people building that better world right now without waiting for others or institutions to do it. We need people fighting against the things that create harm. Radical hope is a foundation for all of this, and solarpunk breeds such hope.
Stories help everyone imagine what is possible—as many have said: you have to imagine the future in order to create it. Some stories are set in the far future where solarpunk communities thrive. Some are set in the present climate emergency where characters strive for change and seek the trajectories to get to better futures. It’s the collection of all these stories that form a whole greater than any one story.
I go back to Jay Springett’s notion of solarpunk as a memetic engine. Ideas collect in the engine and as they interact they create new ideas for the world. We need this dynamic engine thrumming in order to reach people and foster action.
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BrightFlame (she/they) writes, teaches, and makes magic for bright futures. Her debut novel The Working is out, and her climate fiction appears in Solarpunk Creatures, Bioluminescent, and Solarpunk Magazine. She’s a member of the Climate Fiction Writers League and the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association. She’s known for her teaching in the worldwide pagan community and co-founded the Center for Sustainable Futures at Columbia University that features her workshops and nonfiction. She lives on Lenape territory (Turtle Island/US). brightflame.com
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