Hopepunk as a genre is still struggling to be born. It’s popping up in books like Becky Chambers’ Psalm for the Wild-Built, TV series like the third season of Star Trek: Discovery, and movies like Free Guy.
In retrospect, I’ve been writing hopepunk for many years, but it was only in 2017 that I started writing it in an intentional way. In 2020, as I dove into writing my most explicitly hopepunk series yet (a futuristic climate fiction, Nothing is Promised), I blogged my way through the discovery process of what it meant to write hopepunk fiction.
This is an ongoing series about crafting stories in this new genre, which I see slowly gaining momentum. We’re all feeling our way through the wildlands, finding a way to tell better stories to guide us, and finding each other along the way… which is exactly how it’s always worked.
Welcome friends! Stick close. We need to stay together to make it through.
- A Brief History of Hopepunk
- On Writing Hopepunk
- Hopepunk vs. Dystopia
- The Hero is All of Us
- The Heroine’s Journey
- We’re All Connected
- Writing in the Time of Insanity
- On Vulnerability
- 4 Kinds of Hope
- Writing Hopepunk When Everything is Uncertain
ABOUT THE SERIES
If you’ve been following my series on hopepunk, you have some idea what to expect from the books—weaponized compassion, heroine’s journey, vulnerability—but let me tell you a bit about the series as a whole.
The four books each have their own protagonist—each has a story of their own and a part to play in the mystery unfolding at Power Island One.
The covers, the titles, the characters themselves… they’re all linked. There’s a lot I’m trying to do with this series, but the meta narrative of We’re All Connected is reflected in how the series has been envisioned and constructed from the very start.
Current status: I’m writing the long-delayed fourth book in the series. The first three are published, available on ebook, print, and audiobook. I hope you’ll take a chance on them, but more importantly, if you’re reading this, I hope you’re creating some hopepunk of your own.
Fantastic. Today I learned what hopepunk is.
Thank you, I learned something today!
I looked up your blog, hoping to hear news of the fourth book in the series. At least I see there is a cover! Waiting hopefully for the appearance of the book itself. Loved the first three.
Is there a place where other hopepunk authors can come together? Just read this blog post and LOVE what is happening here!