‘Sci-fi’ goes ‘cli-fi’

At the WorldCon75 science fiction fan forum in Helsinki, Finland this week, ”Sci-Fi went Cli-Fi.” Yes, for the first time ever, a well-attended panel featuring Cat Sparks other writers from around the world discussed the rise of cli-fi as a new literary genre.

This was literary history in the making. For the first time ever, an international science fiction fan convention featured a cli-fi panel exploring the rise of the cli-fi genre in the 21st century, with a five-person panel and moderator carrying the day forward.

From all accounts (and live-tweets) it was a lively and spirited discussion and it marked the first time the cli-fi genre was welcomed in such a public way into the sci-fi community of writers, critics and fans worldwide.

Bravo to the planning committee at WorldCon75 and those who were instrumental in making this happen and setting it up.

Hopefully, as I told Cat in some Facebook messages during the convention, more panels like this will happen in the future at other WorldCons in 2018 and 2019 and 2020 and onward.

You can read more about the panel discussions here and see some photographs taken at the forum.