On this episode of The Shortlist I am joined by my friend and brilliant writer, Chloe Bloom! They take me through their list of speculative futures that bring them hope and dread and we imagine what kind of worlds might be just around the corner.

Chloe Bloom (they/them) is a writer, editor and bookseller living and studying in Naarm. Their writing usually revolves around queerness and coming of age, sometimes bending into the horror genre. One day they will maybe finish their novel. You can find out more about Chloe on their website or on Instagram @finalgirlapologist

This episode was recorded in Naarm on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. I pay my respects to their elders past and present and acknowledge that they have been sharing stories and knowledge on this land generations and millennia. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.

Show notes:

(02:56) Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White

(06:54) Mention of Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

(08:00) Religious organisations and spec fic

(11:56) Into the Mouth of the Wolf by Erin Gough. Note: we did go to the launch and it was great! And we figured out it Gough said like “Goff” or like Gough Whitlam’s name. Sorry Erin for saying your name wrong, Erin!

(14:17) OFFICIAL SPOILER WARNING FOR ALL BOOKS CHLOE TALKS ABOUT. They can’t remember what’s a spoiler or not, but that’s part of their charm.

(20:00) Enclave by Claire G Coleman and a brief digression into The Giver by Lois Lowry

(26:00) Lydia speaks her truth about The Handmaid’s Tale / a discussion of diversity and intersectionality in speculative futures, including how the Handmaids Tale and 1984 do not do this well (according to us)

(29:00) Everything Feels Like the End of the World by Else Fitzgerald. Digression into discussion of posterity, queerness, and imagining the future. Mentions of a bunch of books including Ghost Species by James Bradley, Deep Water by James Bradley, and Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman.

(35:10) I believe this quote is from Donna Haraway, who wrote Making Kin not Population: Reconceiving Generations. Chloe found it through Haraway’s essay, Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Platationocene, Chthulucene: Making Kin

(37:21) Other climate future books mentioned: How to Talk About Climate Change in a Way That Makes a Difference by Rebecca Huntley and Always Will Be by Mykaela Saunders and Signs and Wonders by Delia Falconer.

(39:20) Discussion of whether climate fiction and fiction imagining the future help people act on climate issues. Also a discussion of religious and social organisations as an organising force for imagining futures. 

(45:27) THIS IS A DIGRESSION-INCLUSIVE PODCAST, OKAY! Let’s talk about time travel!

(46:00) Mention of Time and Time Again by Ben Elton and individual impacts

(47:46) What I Would Do to You by Georgia Harper.

(49:31) CORRECTION: Australia had the death penalty until 1985, when NSW was the last state to scrap it. The last execution was in 1967 at Pentridge Prison. The first executions in Victoria were the hangings of Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner, Tasmanian Aboriginal men who were executed just outside Old Melbourne Gaol, at what is now RMIT. There is a beautiful memorial to them there. The last Old Melbourne Gaol execution took place in 1924. There were classes happening at RMIT, next door, from 1887. France’s last beheading was later than I said, in 1977 not 1972.

(53:20) Justice as a defining theme of spec fic

(56:58) The show I was thinking of is Inside Man

(01:03:14) Crowning the winner!

This episode was recorded in Naarm on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. I pay my respects to their elders past and present and acknowledge that they have been sharing stories and knowledge on this land generations and millennia. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.

(This was my first time using the State Library Recording studio, so there are a couple of hiccups/inconsistencies in volume. Apologies! I know what I’m doing for next time!)