As sustainability practitioners, many of us recognise that facts alone rarely move hearts, and climate anxiety can be a natural response to such conversations.”
an ASP Director
I’m delighted to share that my new novel Salt & Seeds has been longlisted for the Books for Schools Award at Key Stage 3. It’s also proving popular with young adults in libraries along the East Coast of England, where the story is set.
Hull Children’s Services ordered 10 new copies just this week for youth centres in the region. Seeing the book embraced by the very communities it was written for is humbling and deeply encouraging.
This summer, I took Salt & Seeds on a 4,000-mile trek, an 8-country European book tour, supported by the wonderful publisher Grokkist Press. I enjoyed leaving signed copies and bookmarks in bookshops, libraries, and community spaces from Brittany to Bohemia. Along the way, I met educators, climate organisers, and climate-fiction readers, planting the book as a conversation starter for imagining hopeful futures.
Why Story? Why Now?
We know data can inform and motivate, but it often struggles to reach people emotionally, especially young people already facing an overload of future-facing fears. Fiction offers a different way in. It allows us to explore the consequences of climate action (or inaction), the complexity of systemic change, and the quiet power of community-led adaptation, not through instructions, but through lived experience, even if imagined.
In my workshops, I’ve found that eco-futurist stories, whether solarpunk, speculative fiction, or grounded realism, give young people a language for both their fears and their hopes. Stories help normalise conversations about the future and open space for “what if?” thinking. They’re rehearsal spaces for alternative futures and optimistic, DIY resilience.
By writing Salt & Seeds, I wanted to offer a narrative that didn’t gloss over the challenges, but that refused despair. A story that might seed questions, kindle resilience, and spark action.
After thirty-five years as a youth & community workshop facilitator, I wanted a catalyst and tool for workshops and writing salons, to focus on eco-futurism, reimagining the world we want to live in. As sustainability practitioners, many of us recognise that facts alone rarely move hearts, and climate anxiety can be a natural response to such conversations. Salt & Seeds approaches things through a gentle, romantic, and sometimes adventurous tale, to facilitate understanding.
If you’d like to follow the journey, I’m sharing updates, photos, and reflections on Substack at alanraw.substack.com
I hope to explore this more within the ASP network soon. In the meantime, here’s what Grokkist Press had to say about Salt & Seeds, plus a good podcast conversation about it, (which also mentions ASP) on the Shifting Views show:
🔗 Grokkist Press: grokk.ist/books/salt-and-seeds
Most importantly, if you’re interested in exploring more ways of bringing eco-futurist storytelling into engagement work, or if you are writing solarpunk or climate fiction yourself, I’d love to hear from you: alanrawwrites@gmail.com
