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Over coming weeks we’ll have a series of mini interviews (“minterviews” if you will) with some of the awesome writers in our forthcoming Ecopunk! (check it out on kickstarter http:\/\/kck.st\/2xGeJ9x<\/a>)<\/p>\n Next up is DK Mok. <\/strong>DK <\/a>is a fantasy and science fiction author whose novels include Squid’s Grief<\/em> and Hunt for Valamon<\/em>. DK has been shortlisted for four Aurealis Awards, two Ditmars and a WSFA Small Press Award. DK graduated from UNSW with a degree in Psychology, pursuing her interests in both social justice and scientist humour. DK lives in Sydney, Australia, and her favourite fossil deposit is the Burgess Shale.<\/p>\n 1. Tell us a little about your Ecopunk! story, and the inspiration behind it. <\/b><\/p>\n I love libraries. As a child, my local libraries were enchanted places full of wonder and adventure. In high school, libraries were my sanctuary, where I found solace, inspiration and fuel for my curiosity. Now, libraries are still a crucial source of information and creative sustenance for me.<\/p>\n A few years ago, I came across a book called Improbable Libraries<\/em> by Alex Johnson. And it was here that I learned of the Biblioburro. My story, “The Wandering Library”, was inspired by these heroic champions of literacy and education. It follows the journey of Lani Bashir, a travelling librarian, as she navigates a world transformed by rising seas and genetically modified creatures, visiting communities powered by sun, wind, sea and cheese.<\/p>\n 2. What science fictional technology do you wish we had now?<\/b><\/p>\n Airships! Giant solar-powered airships! I love the idea of floating hotels, airborne villages, flying hospitals. Airships are great because the vertical lift-off and landing means they’re not reliant on runways, roads or ports, so previously inaccessible areas are much easier to reach. They’re also readily scalable, so theoretically you could have a tiny flying library or a sprawling floating city.<\/p>\n I think this technology could be transformative: imagine dropping fully equipped, fully staffed hospitals into epidemic hot-zones; or shipping entire camps of emergency housing, food and aid workers into — or out of — disaster-hit regions; or travelling museums and galleries visiting remote communities.<\/p>\n We already have most of the technology, and while speed of travel is a limiting factor, I’d love to see airships become a sustainable form of transport in the near future.<\/p>\n 3. With all these scary climate events happening at the moment, it’s sometimes hard to see some light. What gives you the most hope for humanity and the world?<\/b><\/p>\n I draw inspiration from those who are taking action to make the world a better place — and there are plenty of them. From humanitarian organisations like Malala Fund, working to ensure that every girl has access to quality education, to high-tech companies like BioCarbon Engineering, restoring ecosystems on an industrial scale with the use of tree-planting aerial drones. From activists like ClientEarth, using environmental law to hold governments to account, to science literacy programs like Skype a Scientist, connecting disadvantaged students around the world to diverse, working scientists. And the list goes on.<\/p>\n Look locally, and you’ll find people supporting libraries and knowledge centres, community solar projects, and waste reduction initiatives; people pushing their local governments for greater sustainability, more energy independence, more green space.<\/p>\n If you want a regular dose of innovation and activism, I highly recommend podcasts like Science Friday<\/a>, BBC Click Radio<\/a>, and BBC People Fixing the World<\/a>. Be inspired, and then take action. Because hope arises from taking action.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Ecopunk! – speculative tales of radical futures<\/strong> contains 19 optimistic tales, selected by two award-winning editors, showing how humanity can survive and flourish, despite the looming uncertainty from climate change. The incredible line-up includes some of Australia’s best science fiction writers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Over coming weeks we’ll have a series of mini interviews (“minterviews” if you will) with some of the awesome writers in our forthcoming Ecopunk! (check it out on kickstarter http:\/\/kck.st\/2xGeJ9x) Next up is DK Mok. DK is a fantasy and science fiction author whose novels include Squid’s Grief and Hunt for Valamon. DK has been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[110],"tags":[167,675,683,667,124],"class_list":["post-417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ecopunk","tag-cat-sparks","tag-climate-change","tag-dk-mok","tag-ecopunk","tag-liz-grzyb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ticonderogapublications.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ticonderogapublications.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ticonderogapublications.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ticonderogapublications.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ticonderogapublications.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ticonderogapublications.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ticonderogapublications.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ticonderogapublications.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ticonderogapublications.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ticonderogapublications.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Under a chapter entitled ‘Animal Libraries’, I learned of primary school teacher Luis Soriano and his two donkeys, carrying books to remote communities in Colombia. I learned of an elephant called Boom-Boom, bringing fairy tales and dinosaur books to children in Laos; camel libraries in Kenya; Donkey Drawn Libraries in Zimbabwe; nomadic writers on reindeer in Mongolia. All over the world, there are passionate people braving deserts, storms and bandits to bring books to children in isolated communities.<\/p>\n