After Water

In "World After Water", Abby Geni imagines a city flooded by toxic water too poisonous to drink. Four young boys resort to stealing filtered water from their wealthy neighbors in their struggle to survive.

Geni wrote her story after spending time researching how climate change could change our day to day life. Hear Geni's thoughts on why her fiction focuses on the natural world and how science in literature can help us think about the future.

You can listen to Abby's story "World After Water" on our Soundcloud, at our website wbez.org, and at afterwater.tumblr.com.

(Photo courtesy of Abby Geni)

What happens 100 years from now when, if climate change has brought us to a point where water has become one of our scarcest resources, and more precious than oil or gold? We've asked fiction writers to imagine the Great Lakes region a century or more on, and help us paint an audio portrait of that world. In her story, "World After Water", Chicago author Abby Geni brings us to a city flooded by dirty, toxic water. We follow the struggle of four boys, forced to steal clean water from their wealthy neighbors to survive.

(Illustration by Abby Geni)

Author Max Andrew Dubinsky imagines a future world where people in California are plagued by drought and rising sea levels. In hopes of finding a better life, some of them turn their eyes towards the Great Lakes region.

Dubinsky wrote his story after being paired with a scientist for our series After Water. Hear him talk about that process and the research behind his imagined world in this interview with WBEZ's Shannon Heffernan.

You can hear Max Andrew Dubinsky's story, "Thirst", on our SoundCloud, and at afterwater.tumblr.com.

(Photo courtesy of Max Andrew Dubinsky)

(Flickr/James Marvin Phelps)

What happens 100 years from now when, if climate change has brought us to a point where water has become one of our scarcest resources, and more precious than oil or gold? We've asked fiction writers to imagine the Great Lakes region a century or more on, and help us paint an audio portrait of that world. In his story, “Thirst” Los Angeles-based author Max Andrew Dubinsky brings us to a California that’s dry and dying, its inhabitants looking to the Great Lakes as their last salvation.

Award-winning, science-fiction author Nnedi Okorafor wrote a story set on Chicago's Rainbow Beach, decades in the future. After a conversation with a Great Lakes expert, she imagined a future world where the water is contaminated and Chicagoans on the South Side are separated from any access to clean water. In this interview with Shannon Heffernan, Okorafor talked about the real life scenarios behind her sci-fi story.

You can hear Nnedi Okorafor's story, "Poison Fish" on our Soundcloud and at afterwater.tumblr.com.

(Photo of Nnedi Okorafor by Shannon Heffernan)

(Flickr/surfergirl1972)

What happens 100 years from now when, if climate change has brought us to a point where water has become one of our scarcest resources, and more precious than oil or gold? We've asked fiction writers to imagine the Great Lakes region a century or more on, and help us paint an audio portrait of that world. Local author Nnedi Okorafor starts out the series on Chicago's south side. In her story, "Poison Fish" (or, "Poison Poisson"), Okorafor brings us to a dystopian backdrop of memories and chaos, set along the waterfront on Chicago's south side.