A treat for you! The British Fantasy Society invited me onto a solarpunk panel during their January 2026 event, The Creative Fix: Social Justice Through Writing. There, I met Hugo Award finalist writer, editor, and researcher Yen Ooi.
I was intrigued when she spoke of Zoefuturism—my first encounter with the term. Its concepts are quite aligned with my way of viewing the world.
I am thrilled she agreed to write the following for us.
The featured image is a work-in-progress illustration of Zoefuturism by Yen Ooi, titled heart_world.
Zoefuturism
by Yen Ooi
I met BrightFlame when we both participated in a British Fantasy Society’s event on Solarpunk – them as one of the panellists, and me as moderator. I knew only a little about Solarpunk and was very excited to learn more. I’m grateful and delighted that BrightFlame and I stayed in touch after and they kindly invited me to write this blog post to talk a little about another subgenre, an area I’ve been working on that isn’t too far from Solarpunk – Zoefuturism.
In a nutshell, Zoefuturism is a cultural futurism that is attached more to philosophy than specific communities. This should hopefully become clearer as we delve into its characteristics – where in Zoefuturism, everything is:
- relational;
- constantly becoming (never still); and
- doesn’t engage in binarisms/dualisms.
Being relational is the foundation of Zoefuturism where meaning, knowledge and understanding all come from accepting its relational values. Who we are, how things work, what creatures are, or how the environment behaves all depend on each other. Nothing stands alone and nothing is unaffected by the other. And when everything depends on everything else, nothing is still or permanent, since everything is constantly “becoming” – always changing. If we left an item untouched (by us), it will still be touched by the elements, by other creatures, and through time, it will change. An abandoned plastic doll might lose its identity as a plaything and perhaps even come apart. Its head might find its way to the sea and become a hermit crab’s new shell. Its hair a murder weapon, strangling sea creatures. Even a takeaway menu left on a desk, untouched in years would become something different… a little roof for critters, perhaps. And in its relationality, Zoefuturism does not accept or engage with binarisms/dualisms. When we use terminology that may seem binary in English, like black/white, men/women, good/bad, their meanings are not in opposition, but rather, they draw us to the whole. Black/white is referencing the full spectrum of colours, men/women the full diversity of people, and good/bad consider the complete spectrum of ethics or even behaviour.
Zoefuturism sees stories about life that is relational, constantly becoming, and focussed on full, holistic perspectives. While it is easily compared to other speculative subgenres, where it clearly differs from the likes of Solarpunk, Hopepunk, or Thrutopia is that it does not require or perceive stories to be optimistic – since positivity/negativity is a binary that reflect the fullness of life. Often, I’m asked to name Zoefuturist stories or writers and Regina Kanyu Wang’s “The Story of Dao”, Becky Chambers’s Monk and Robot series and Stephen Oram’s Brain Fruit come easily to mind. However, there are plenty of stories from indigenous, East Asian and other communities that are naturally Zoefuturistic due to their cultural philosophies that lend themselves to Zoefuturist thinking.
It can also be argued that Zoefuturism is in every story, and whether the characteristics are prominent or not entirely depends on the perspective in which the stories take place. Take for instance a classic hero story, like one from the Marvel Universe. Pick any film, and as we follow the main path that holds our attention, it is unlikely to present Zoefuturist elements. However, if we take time to consider any other non-protagonist character in the film and contemplate what their story might look like, it is likely that we would start to encounter Zoefuturist elements, simply because we are starting to perceive ‘life’ rather than a bunch of dramatic plots that hold together a film that is created for pure entertainment.
Recently, I met Jenifer Toksvig who told me that, “Stories do not need help, humans do.” I fell in love with this quote because it clarifies this idea of perspective succinctly. It reminds us that actually, our world – our cosmos – is full of stories. For me, her quote tells us that stories happen all around us all the time whether we pay attention to them or not, and that they are always full, complete, and as they should be. How we engage with stories as humans though, is what needs help – that’s why we need to tell stories, write books, sing songs, and more. These are all ways in which we engage with stories. And while mainstream media has trained us into expecting and anticipating certain types of stories – hero’s journey, three-act structure, etc – genres and subgenres that give us cause to pause and think like Zoefuturism, Solarpunk and others, can expand our engagement with stories to help us learn new ways to enjoy, communicate, and reconnect with life.
When you next consume a story in whatever form, consider how you are guided to engage with the story and what perspectives are missing. Or when you’re out and about in your life, observe the stories all around, paying attention to the relationships between living creatures, plants and things. Perhaps those are stories that you might like to then share with others.
Dr Yen Ooi is a Hugo Award finalist narrative designer, writer, editor, and researcher with a diverse portfolio of work from short stories to books, poetry to computer games, academic papers to non-fiction books. Her interests lie in the connections between storytelling and the real world, delving into culture and philosophy—most recently, culminating in zoefuturism. Her latest projects include The Zen Parent (non-fiction), Tales of Seikyu (game) and Ab Terra 2024. When she’s not got her head in a book or a game, she lectures, mentors, and plays the viola. www.yenooi.com
Yen Ooi and Stephen Oram are currently co-editing two issues of Vector on Zoefuturism for the British Science Fiction Association. Find out more here: https://vector-bsfa.com/current-issue/
Copyright of heart_world illustration and the above article remain with Yen Ooi.