• Home
  • Writing
  • Teaching
  • Schedule
  • Media
  • About
    • About Me
    • Link Tree
    • About Reclaiming
  • Newsletter
  • Contact
Newsletter
BrightFlameBrightFlame
  • Home
  • Writing
  • Teaching
  • Schedule
  • Media
  • About
    • About Me
    • Link Tree
    • My Newsletter
    • About Reclaiming
  • Contact

BrightFlame is a Priestex of Words

I write to help people imagine a just, regenerating world and bright futures. I write to help people find their connection to the Earth, to feel its sacredness. I write to spur imagination and creative problem-solving for our futures. I write to empower people to act.


My solarpunk story “Ancestors, Descendants” is featured in the Bright Green Futures anthology that launches on Earth Day!


Fiction

Book cover. Dark green to lighter green leaves border a pentacle that serves as a window to hues of blue. Title: The Working. Author: BrightFlameIn my speculative novel, The Working, modern day Witches must thwart the force ripping apart our planet’s life-sustaining web and find the key to the bright futures we need. Find The Working here: Water Dragon Publishing with links to purchase print and digital. Consider supporting Independent bookstores or shop at Bookshop.org.

I greatly appreciate your help getting The Working out to the world. Reviews, especially on the major sites, help. Even a sentence. You might also request my book from your local bookshops and libraries so they’ll acquire it.

Backcover copy:

A modern coven must thwart a looming eco-cataclysm and find the key to the bright future we need.

Betsy’s a modern-day Witch with an ageless problem: she’s worried about screwing up her coven’s ritual. Again. But the coven  has  a  bigger  issue  to  face—the  destruction  of  their home  thanks  to  a  fracked  gas  pipeline.  And then  an  even bigger problem—a greed-fueled entity will soon obliterate Earth’s ability to support life.

Tarot cards indicate the coven must sort among allies and threats, human and ethereal.

Follow Betsy, Sail, Fire, Mari, and Tal as they disentangle the truth and seek the magic to avert the cataclysm.

Fans of The Once and Future Witches and The City We Became will love The Working for its feminist, justice-seeking, ensemble  cast.  Readers  hail  The Working  for  its  diverse characters, real magical practice, and tilt towards hope.

“In The Working, BrightFlame shows us why she’s a master of climate fiction and lunarpunk. Her novel is a compelling narrative following five witches seeking to repair what’s wrong with the world. I was left wanting to have a meeting with this coven. Highly recommended!”

—Renan Bernardo, Nebula and Ignyte finalist author of Different Kinds of Defiance

“BrightFlame’s writing is a joy and a gift. The Working stays grounded in actionable solutions to the existential threats of corporate greed and climate change, with the characters fighting for better futures on both the physical and metaphysical planes.”

—Sarena Ulibarri, author of Another Life

“Lots of really interesting real-life witchcraft, told from the POVs of all the witches in the coven (plus a few extras!). I really liked how the mundane and the supernatural were both entangled with the climate crisis.”

—Susan Kaye Quinn, author of Nothing is Promised

“This page turner showcases witches as powerful agents of transformation, using magic journeying to challenge social norms and heal the world around them. Through their unique abilities and viewpoints, the ensemble coven shows the strength found in community and the potential for change from marginalized voices. A captivating read that empowers and inspires.”

—Jeff Lilly, editor of The Druid Journal

“All the witches are very different people, but they treat each other like sisters, which was nice to see. They felt like real people to me.”

—Alina Leonova, author of Wild Flowers, Electric Beasts

“A heady mix of magic and environmental activism, written by a real Witch who knows her stuff and has a gift for embedding knowledge of trance and ritual into fiction.”

—Starhawk, author of The Fifth Sacred Thing

A growing number of my short climate fiction stories are published:

  • “Ancestors, Descendants” in Bright Green Futures (April 2025);
  • “Thank Geo” in Solarpunk Creatures (World Weaver Press, 2024) edited by Sarena Ulibarri et al.;
  • “When the Web Went Down” alongside stories by Starhawk, Sarena Ulibarri, Neil Gaiman, and others in Bioluminescent: a lunarpunk anthology (January 2023)—see the glowing Publishers Weekly review;
  • “Myco Macro” in Issue 5 of Optopia; and
  • “Maybe We Are All Witches” in Issue 6 (November 2022) of Solarpunk Magazine

I plan to collect my solarpunk stories into a volume or novella.

I also have a sequel in mind for The Working.

I was recently accepted as a member of the awesome Climate Fictions Writers League among stellar authors. And I’m part of Broad Universe.

I’m a member of SFWA, the professional organization for Sci Fi and Fantasy writers. Thank you to Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers (BSFW), Mid-May writers, and the NYC nano critique groups for your support.

Nonfiction

I’m working on a nonfiction book related to Witchcraft and magical activism.

Following praise for my article published by the Center for Sustainable Futures at Columbia University, “On Being the Earth,” I added “Towards Solarpunk Futures” and “Writing for the Future.” My essay “Weaving Magic in the Mundane” is included in Honoring the Wild (February 2023).

Keep scrolling for my latest blog articles, followed by recommended reads.

  • Bold title surrounded by brown vine with green leaves: BRIGHT GREEN FUTURES
    Bright Green Futures
    April 9, 2025
    Imagining bright green futures is the first step in getting there. In this post I share the future I desire and inspirations for my stories.

    READ MORE

  • on muddy green background: stick figure sits holding knees. Brown and gray squiggles surround them to capture feel of nervous energy in the air.
    Learning From Forest Marcescence
    February 16, 2025
    Beech trees offer a spark of inspiration. Some thoughts on how to be bright, how to catch inspiration.

    READ MORE

  • Book cover thumbnails on blue & green background with text: BrightFlame's 2024 Award Eligibility.
    Award Eligibility 2024
    November 16, 2024
    'Tis the season for speculative fiction award nominations, including the biggies: Nebulas, World Fantasy, Locus, and Hugos. My debut novel T...

    READ MORE

  • yellow handwriting on brick red background: There is a secret in my novel, The Working
    The (real) Secret
    November 12, 2024
    I began writing The Working when the self-help book The Secret was all the rage. An alternate title for my novel: The Real Secret.

    READ MORE

  • red, orange, yellow tree canopies against vivid blue sky
    Samhain...already?
    November 1, 2024
    I don't feel ready for Samhain and communing with my Ancestors. Plus, from Tower to Star: carrying the elixir of hope.

    READ MORE

  • a portion of the supplemental text contained in this post.
    Deleted Scene from THE WORKING
    October 29, 2024
    Here's a supplement to my novel, The Working---a gift to my readers! I deleted this backstory sequence from the final version of The Working...

    READ MORE

  • book cover with yellow squiggly lines and stars emanating. All on black background. Text: Book Launch Party. Online. Fun & Magic.
    Party With Me!
    September 20, 2024
    Join me for a book launch party Tuesday October 8th from everywhere! (It's online) I'm so excited to celebrate The Working's birth with you.

    READ MORE

  • light blue on dark green: weird, deformed calendar with nonsensical labels and numbers
    Join Me: Events
    August 21, 2024
    Here are my upcoming appearances, workshops, and events. Hope to see you soon! I'll update this post regularly, so check back.

    READ MORE

  • Bright yellow sun is painted over a light blue crescent moon on darker blue background.
    I Didn't Listen to Myself
    July 21, 2024
    The Working is solarpunk! I hedged on this tag for the last few weeks. But I talked myself back into the label.

    READ MORE

  • snapshot of the text that I read in the embedded video.
    THE WORKING: beginning
    June 6, 2024
    As we approach the launch of my debut speculative novel, The Working, I'll post videos about the book. The first one: me reading the opening...

    READ MORE

  • A radiating yellow star pattern in center of tree rings
    Cover design musing
    April 19, 2024
    This doodle is a placeholder as we work on the cover for THE WORKING, my forthcoming speculative novel.

    READ MORE

  • stylized dragon in black on white background. Tail has blue swirls.
    Of Witches, Covens...and Dragons?
    February 12, 2024
    I've signed with Water Dragon Publishing to bring you my debut lunarpunk novel, The Working! I look forward to you meeting the coven who mus...

    READ MORE

  • A yellow candle against a red-patterned scarf with a thin apple seedling rising as the wick, and a new leaf as a flame. Text: "Blessed Brighid 2024"
    Climate Confusion
    February 2, 2024
    It's Imbolc amidst climate chaos. Cycles are out of whack, and yet our kin in Nature find ways to survive.

    READ MORE

  • grey-toned log framed in blue Turkey Tail mushrooms sits on a bed of fallen brown and gold leaves. Text: Elements of Magic...Reimagined! online with Morgana & BrightFlame. 5 weekly sessions beginning mid-Feb. Sliding scale US$80 - 190.
    Learning from the Elements
    January 4, 2024
    I'm co-offering an online, reimagined version of Elements of Magic, Reclaiming Tradition's first core class. It begins mid-February.

    READ MORE

  • On muted orange background, the Wheel of the Year. The vertical axis bleeds colors from dark blue pointing up to bright orange pointing down, Solstice written above and below. The horizontal line is green with Equinox written at either end. Purple diagonals mark the cross-quarter days. Lavender lines radiate in between the 8 major spokes giving the feel of a starburst.
    Everyday is Sacred, a Solstice Message
    December 21, 2023
    Two messages came through my hand as I drew the doodle to accompany this Solstice post. One about energy flow across seasons, and one about ...

    READ MORE

  • From the right, Ancestors depicted as a line of orange stick figures funnel towards the present in the middle--me as a dark orange stick figure with yellow radiating lines. A line of blue stick figures depicts Descendants flowing from me to the left.
    Inspired by Descendants
    October 31, 2023
    At this time of working with my Ancestors, I clearly heard my Descendants. What a gift!

    READ MORE

  • Fanciful book cover in pinks, greens, aquas, indigos, yellow--very bright. An armadillo with a loom on their back walks across a colorful tapestry with a background of greenery. Text: Solarpunk Creatures. Edited by Christoph Rupprecht, Deborah Cleland, Rajat Chaudhuri, Sarena Ulibarri, Melissa Ingaruca Moreno, and Norie Tamura. Publishers name at top: World Weaver Press.
    Solarpunk Anthology: cover reveal!
    October 18, 2023
    My story, "Thank Geo," is included in Solarpunk Creatures. While set in the solarpunk future I've been writing, a main character is unlike a...

    READ MORE

  • Celestial image with bright white stars against neon blue in center, with star clusters on dark background towards edges.
    Witchcamp from Everywhere, Everywhen
    September 27, 2023
    Always wanted to go to a Witchcamp but cost, travel, time weren't feasible? A wonderful team of Reclaiming Trad Witches are hosting an onlin...

    READ MORE

  • yellow starburst sitting on 3 angled blue lines as if on an easel. Small violet white-capped flame hovers above. text in orange: Solarpunk Witchcraft.
    Solarpunk Influence on my Craft
    August 13, 2023
    I am a solarpunk Witch. Solarpunk is great shorthand for how I live and describes my magic, writing, and teaching. How do I express solarpun...

    READ MORE

  • Closeup of a gray-green tree frog resting on a green metal garden gate with a brownish metal sun design in background.
    Slow time and Solstice
    June 23, 2023
    A few days back, a tree frog spent the whole day sleeping on our garden gate. True, they are nocturnal, so it wasn't like they were taking...

    READ MORE

  • A hand-drawn free-form shape with four asymmetrical lobes is outlined in dashed orange line. Within it, all asymmetrical and random: wavy green blotches, wavy blue lines, small mauve peanut shapes, a magenta free-form shape with yellow circles within.
    Amorphous Nonbinariness: Lunarpunk/Solarpunk
    February 16, 2023
    I'm first up in a blog conversation about spirituality, lunarpunk, and solarpunk hosted by Solarpunk Station. Here's an intro to the series.

    READ MORE

  • cover of Optopia mushroom issue with portion of "mushroom forest" painting by Sonecta showing canine near giant fungi
    Another Story Fruited (as in mushrooms)
    January 11, 2023
    My lunarpunk, solarpunk mushroom story "Myco Macro" is in the just-released issue of Optopia. Hail the fungi!

    READ MORE

  • Earth from space with hand holding pen to draw green plants and flowers on it. Text: Regenerative Future; solar; clean water, wind
    Stories for Beauty, Justice, Regeneration!
    January 4, 2023
    Stories poised to launch, an upcoming workshop, and other news of things that feed me. What boosts your spirit?

    READ MORE

  • blue, orange, and silver web with large letters: Mastodon. Small blue bird with word: tweet?
    Tusks or Tweets? Mastodon landing
    November 3, 2022
    Join me and like-minded others on Mastodon, an alternative to twitter. For now I'll be in both places.

    READ MORE

  • butternut squash near goldenrod; words: "Equinox 2022, Harvest Blessings" - BrightFlame
    Climate Fiction | Climate Conference
    September 22, 2022
    Today is the point of balance during the Earth's circuit around the Sun---the Equinox: a great time to probe the crisis of climate imbalance...

    READ MORE

  • bioluminescing foxfire in neon green
    Bioluminescent! (and other writing news)
    August 11, 2022
    You've heard me talking about solarpunk for months! I'm also glowing about lunarpunk . . . or should I say, bioluminescing? I'm included in ...

    READ MORE

  • goldfinch plucking a seed from an echinacea flower that is past its prime bloom
    How pluckable is your harvest?
    August 1, 2022
    A poetic offering and doodle for Lammas 2022. Inspired by the scene out my window: a bright yellow finch plucking a seed from an echinacea.

    READ MORE

  • doodle to capture Witchcamp: set among mountains and lake, two people labeled fire twins, infinity sign labeled "whole time," hammer smashing teacups of white supremacy
    What I Learned at Witchcamp
    July 29, 2022
    I had an incredible, potent, magical time of Wonder and Mystery at Witchcamp in mid-July. In no particular order, here are some things I lea...

    READ MORE

  • doodle of clock faces floating in space. words: echoes of whole time.
    It's Time! Writing and Teaching News mid-2022
    June 8, 2022
    Lots of news about writing and teaching! Forthcoming stories, in-person teaching, and more. Plus, I dance in Whole Time.

    READ MORE

  • line down the middle divides the seaasons; words of Winter on the left, Spring on the right
    Crossing the Seasons
    March 20, 2022
    There's a line between seasons. Perhaps it feels solid as a mountain. Perhaps gossamer as spider silk. Perhaps muddy, sticky, sharp, made tr...

    READ MORE

  • closeup of flame on lit candle
    Brighid's Day
    February 2, 2022
    Today is Imbolc or Brighid as many in Reclaiming name this cross-quarter day in the Wheel of the year. Halfway between Solstice and Equinox....

    READ MORE

  • fanciful drawing of the Earth surrounded by yellow sun-like lines, all under a giant brown umbrella as a depiction of solarpunk
    Solarpunk Futures: Tilting Towards a Better World
    January 29, 2022
    I'm very taken with solarpunk, a movement grounded in reality that points us towards justice and a regenerative world. My solarpunk article ...

    READ MORE

  • illustration of lunarpunk novel: Witches performing a magical working that radiates Earth energy
    Lunarpunk, in hindsight . . . or foresight
    January 17, 2022
    To some, my novel might appear to be contemporary fantasy. Yet those in a spiritual path like mine will recognize The Working as fabulism (m...

    READ MORE

  • domed city amidst forest landscape with distant mountains. Electric wires repurposed with wind turbines and as grape arbor.
    Easing into 2022
    January 2, 2022
    Like a new pair of shoes, I'm not yet sure how 2022 fits. I've not quite landed, nor have a sense of a change in the zietgeist. I'm not rush...

    READ MORE

  • Illuminate the night
    December 20, 2021
    The moon illuminates this longest night as we sail through Solstice. I offer you a pause, a verse.

    READ MORE

  • drawing of red eclipsed moon behind bare trees
    A Sliver Past Eclipse
    November 19, 2021
    The winds are howling today, grabbing at the oak leaves that still cling to branches. I watched the lunar eclipse this morning through these...

    READ MORE

  • monarda in meadow
    Kin: being We with the Earth
    September 6, 2021
    We opened to our nonhuman Earth kin and explored ways to feel ourselves part of the We, decentered and connected with kin.

    READ MORE

  • as the world swirls amidst fire, war, hurricane
    As the World Swirls
    August 29, 2021
    I'd planned to write an article about our potent, beautiful We, The Earth workshop. But today, I'm striving for steady amidst swirling and o...

    READ MORE

  • Witchcamp 2021 workshop: We, the Earth
    Witchcamp 2021: workshops, ritual, connecting
    August 7, 2021
    In my 2021 Witchcamp workshop we'll connect with Earth/Nature as kin. What does it mean to feel ourselves part of the We that encompasses al...

    READ MORE

  • firefly on leaf
    Fireflies, cicadas, and other kin: a climate change story
    June 22, 2021
    I rescued a firefly this morning, giving it a lift outside from the bathroom floor. What would Summer be without fireflies? To my dismay, cl...

    READ MORE

  • knight astride horse with golden goblet in outstretched hand
    Wisdom from the Elders
    May 13, 2021
    The Old Ones pulled a card for you: Knight of Cups. They offer wisdom about reciprocity.

    READ MORE

  • black spiral on yellow background with a broom diagonally across it.
    Why a Witch?
    May 1, 2021
    A long-overdue post on why I describe myself as a Witch, despite stereotypes and hate. Or perhaps...

    READ MORE

  • pen on fire
    New moon lift: it's about time
    April 16, 2021
    Yeah, Aries! Since the April new moon, my energy has risen. I wrote 3 stories, penned this blog, co-created a ritual. Lift!

    READ MORE

  • fire sculpture made of orange peels
    Of Fire, Eggs and Community
    April 1, 2021
    It's Spring in the North, and like young plants just poking through the soil, many who have isolated all year are peeking outside. Is it saf...

    READ MORE

  • The cards say
    Approaching the Equinox
    March 17, 2021
    "Your call is important to us. Please hold . . . " What is pertinent right now ahead of the Equinox? What do the cards say?

    READ MORE

  • Knight with cup in outstretched hand.
    Writing in 2021
    January 11, 2021
    What would be the best use of our writing talents in the coming season? I asked the cards for wisdom to share with my fellow writers. Be...

    READ MORE

  • gateway
    Enter Aquarius
    January 5, 2021
    The great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on Dec 21st, the Solstice, was a threshold to a new era. I co-created and participated in a seri...

    READ MORE

  • Saved Places
    November 17, 2020
    Can you picture a future with scarce water, scarce green plants, no trees? Small and remote insular communities bound together by necessity?...

    READ MORE

  • Litany for the Earth
    October 20, 2020
    Consider: the world needs evolutionary change. Not the kind of evolution that's slow and increment. Evolutionary as in revolutionary, transf...

    READ MORE

  • Web of All
    The Web of All: Building Our Resiliency
    May 9, 2020
    How are you holding up during these unprecedented times? Resiliency is so important for our well-being and our work in the world. I'm thrill...

    READ MORE

  • food from the land
    Beltane 2020
    May 1, 2020
    The first of May, a time to dance, to weave colorful ribbons about a maypole. A time to celebrate the uplifting, the fertile, the greening. ...

    READ MORE

  • Singing to the Trees
    April 5, 2020
    A few years back, eight of us wrote this song for trees as part of a ritual to protect them from the ash borer and strengthen the Living Web...

    READ MORE

  • fungi
    Connecting
    March 18, 2020
    Humans, like most beings, thrive when we share intimacy. Yet I'm writing this amidst a pandemic, a time to practice social distancing in or...

    READ MORE

  • Rivers are People
    Ecosystems are People
    March 8, 2020
    Rivers, wild rice, the animal kingdom, and other elements of Nature are People. The right of Nature to exist, to regenerate...does not detra...

    READ MORE

  • Brighid 2020
    February 1, 2020
    February 1st in the Northern Hemisphere is a time to listen to the stirring of the seeds in the ground. Listen. Deep down. What seeds s...

    READ MORE

  • When the Earth is Our Teacher
    December 2, 2019
    Picture this: you stand in a grove of trees; rocks, moss, and ferns cradle the massive furrowed trunks that rise from wide roots to soar far...

    READ MORE

  • spider web
    Reclaiming the Threads
    October 30, 2019
    The veil is thin and it's time for Witches and various traditions to commune with our ancestors of blood and legacy. Last month at my tradit...

    READ MORE

  • Robin Wall Kimmerer
    Ki: Pronoun of the Revolution
    October 17, 2019
    How do we address and refer to non-human beings? Relegating trees and canines to the same classification as a metal table, an it: nope, does...

    READ MORE

  • Indigenous People's Day
    October 14, 2019
    Mention Indian and some may think of the 1700 and 1800s. They may think all Indians live on reservations in the plains states. They may thin...

    READ MORE

  • Climate Emergency: Act Now
    October 13, 2019
    A sailboat blocked traffic in busy Times Square for hours in NYC: Extinction Rebellion has arrived in the US. While XR began in the United K...

    READ MORE

  • The Essence of Me
    February 22, 2019
    Words might describe me. Witch. Teacher. Activist. Human. But none of those are me. Instead, you'll find me in the space between: the inters...

    READ MORE

  • Earth Rise! with Starhawk
    November 8, 2018
    I'm thrilled to join Starhawk once again to offer two weekends of change-making. We'll transform overwhelm (grief, anger...) at the state of...

    READ MORE

  • The Veil Is Thin - The Ancestors Are Near
    October 31, 2018
    Blessed Samhain to those who mark this holy day. It's the final harvest. The time when life force "dies" to be reborn next season. With news...

    READ MORE

  • womb in the Earth
    Power of Language, part 2
    June 23, 2018
    That Tricky Dark/Light Binary A hair past the (Northern) Summer Solstice, tipping from waxing to waning daylight, a good time to contemplate...

    READ MORE

  • loaded words
    Power of Language, part 1
    June 17, 2018
    Think of a hateful word or phrase. Notice how it feels in your muscles, your jaw, your gut, your heart. Notice how the energy of those words...

    READ MORE

  • Note to Self: Nature Writer
    May 19, 2018
    Perhaps I should be a nature writer. Images, delights, symbols from nature are what I'm called to share with you because it's effortless ...

    READ MORE

  • Thrusting MayDay
    May 1, 2018
    Bring it on up Bring it on out What? Whatever in you has been percolating, hiding, baking, cooking, dormant . . . Spring is the time to rise...

    READ MORE

  • mirrored pond
    Writing, Divination, Inspiration . . . and Verse
    April 21, 2018
    Windows on windows Evoke above, below. Sky flows to water. Trees: mirrored columns That draw me deep. And there. There. One bright poking ti...

    READ MORE

  • A versal Vernal verse
    March 20, 2018
    Versal Vernal Equinox 2018 Sinking downward deep Deep into fecund Earth To heal and be healed To immerse in the vital force Still so buried...

    READ MORE

  • Bird Goddess
    Of Women and Ecofeminism
    March 8, 2018
    Quick, which women paved the way for your sacred path? Marija Gimbutas. Rachel Carson. Hmmm. Who would be my third? Archaeologist Marija Gim...

    READ MORE

  • Ocean Recharge
    March 1, 2018
    After a whirlwind few days, strolling the water's edge at Sandy Hook is just what I need to recharge. Here, a yummy 50 degrees under bright ...

    READ MORE

  • Elements of Magic, Reimagined
    February 16, 2018
    April 7-8, 2018 Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Spirit  With the art of magic, we deepen our vision and focus our will, empowering ourselves to act...

    READ MORE

  • BrightFlame & Starhawk
    Feeding the Sacred Spark
    February 12, 2018
    A Workshop with Starhawk & BrightFlame NYC Saturday, Feb 24, 2018 In these troubled times, our bright hopes can easily get buried under ...

    READ MORE

  • Priestesses by Mim
    Priestessing Through Life
    February 1, 2018
    As I redesigned my website, I wanted to segment the menu into the three aspects of me: Writing, Teaching, Priestessing. Writing? Easy. Let y...

    READ MORE

  • Teaching with Starhawk
    November 15, 2017
    One of my favorite people, Starhawk is a dear friend and mentor. She co-founded the Reclaiming Tradition of Witchcraft and is the author or ...

    READ MORE

  • Teaching at Witchcamps
    September 16, 2017
    Witch school for adults? Yes, there really are witchcamps, our name for Reclaiming Tradition's weeklong intensives. And intense they are! We...

    READ MORE

  • Class Sampler
    August 15, 2017
    I've offered so many workshops and classes over the past few decades and enjoy crafting the perfect experiential, immersive exercises for ea...

    READ MORE

  • Writing
    Change the story, change the world
    June 20, 2017
    That is why I write We think in story, we learn in story, we perceive in story. While facts and logic are useful and important, they don’t p...

    READ MORE

  • Reclaiming Core Classes
    June 16, 2017
    Elements of Magic is Reclaiming Tradition's first core class and a prerequisite for the others. Our classes are experiential and are set wit...

    READ MORE

  • lush pond
    Water dissolves, roots tear apart, foundations crack
    April 11, 2017
    Be the Green That Grows Through the Cracks, the Water That Dissolves Rock Water is the strongest solvent. Given time, it dissolves rock. It’...

    READ MORE

  • Writing to Change the World
    March 4, 2017
    #WriteYourResistance Earlier this week — the start of March — it was above 70 degrees in New York City. After dark, still too hot to wear a ...

    READ MORE

  • Lorax
    Flora over fauna?
    May 3, 2014
    Today we finished fencing much of the land my partner and I tend in order for the forest and the meadow to regenerate. Though rural, this ar...

    READ MORE

  • flower path
    Beltane Dreaming
    April 30, 2014
    Fire and water combine to raise mist off the land. Ahhh. I feel the elements so viscerally this Beltane morning. I think about my Craft–my ...

    READ MORE

Filter - All
collage of book covers from my recommended reads, including: The Deep, Memory Librarian, Akata Witch, Another Life, Fifth Sacred Thing, Arboreality.

Great Reads

Fiction fills me with wonder, possibilities, truth, wisdom, beauty, hope. Following are books I commend to you. Some of my all-time favorites stay at the top of the list, particularly solarpunk:

  • A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys is one of the best solarpunk books I've read. Keeping at top of list!
  • Different Kinds of Defiance by Renan Bernardo. Amidst climate-changed Brazil, Renan drills deep into characters as he offers #solarpunk tech for the future. Touching and amazing stories that I highly recommend!
  • Be the Sea by Clara Ward. I highly recommend this eco-lit, climate fiction with diverse (including neurodiverse) characters. The author weaves in marine biology and offers sea creature points of view in a very immersive way.
  • Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell. A touching monster story that lifts inclusion and centers being different. Plus, the author's humor is wonderful.
  • All City by Alex DiFrancesco is solarpunk reminiscent of Doctorow's Lost Cause. Community created by those left behind after Brooklyn floods.
  • Alchemy of a Blackbird by Claire McMillan is historical fiction about surrealist painter Remedios Varo: mystics, art, tarot, feminism!
  • The End of the Ocean by Maja Lunde is set in the fjordes of Norway as humans cause the destruction of aquifers and waterways. A call to climate action!
  • Sordidez by E.G. Condé is a wonderful Taino/Indigenous Futurist read where Indigenous folx survive and ultimately reclaim their lands from settler-colonists. Shows what's truly important in the world.
  • Weird Fishes by Rae Mariz is eco- and climate fiction at its best from nonhuman views including cephalopods, sea mammals, and coral. Incorporates science and Indigenous lore
  • Another Life by Sarena Ulibarri is an excellent solarpunk novella by an author-anthologist who has helped shape solarpunk
  • Gold Fame Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins is a haunting tale once unrelenting drought transfigured Southern California into a surreal landscape who reads as a living being. Explores the myths we believe about others and ourselves, and the shape of hope in a precarious future that may be our own. Chilling.
  • The Lost Cause by Cory Doctorow offers some actionable solarpunk for our current world. A lot of dialogue and philosophizing amidst a feasible storyline to in-fill urban areas to accommodate climate refugees and build resilient communities.
  • The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monáe et al is Afrofuturistism exploring different threads of liberation--queerness, race, gender plurality, and love. A wonderful, thought-provoking set of connected stories!
  • The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz is an excellent solarpunk read: who is a person? how might we create regenerative, mutual societies?
  • The Fifth Sacred Thing and sequel City of Refuge by Starhawk are classic solarpunk from before we called it that
  • Find the full list with book annotations: HERE

August 8, 2018Read More

Find me on Socials (the link icon is Mastodon; the X gets you to Bluesky)

Subscribe to my Blog

Recent Posts

  • Bright Green Futures
  • Learning From Forest Marcescence
  • Award Eligibility 2024
  • The (real) Secret
  • Samhain…already?
  • Deleted Scene from THE WORKING

Sort by category

  • activism (32)
    • enviro (12)
    • justice (16)
  • books (1)
  • Earth (31)
    • environment (6)
    • nature (20)
  • news (11)
  • on writing (17)
  • Pagan (40)
    • holidays (23)
    • Reclaiming (7)
    • Witch (17)
  • Receive updates (1)
  • teaching (24)
    • events (7)
    • workshops (16)
  • The Working (2)
  • Writing (8)

Contact Me

I'd love to hear from you

Send Message
Please sign up for my seasonal newsletter. I value privacy and won't sell/share your info. Yes

© 2025 · BrightFlame *

  • Home
  • Writing
  • Teaching
  • Schedule
  • Media
  • About
    • About Me
    • Link Tree
    • About Reclaiming
  • Newsletter
  • Contact