This course will survey contemporary writers whose work centers around ecological concerns, including but not limited to Richard Powers (The Overstory), Cormac McCarthy (The Road), and Charlotte McConaghy (Migrations). These texts will address the ongoing climate crisis through the mode of fiction (often referred to as cli-fi, or climate fiction), that actively produce potential futures of our world if ecological issues are not soon mitigated. We will read these texts to unfold how the authors of them act as “environmental activist writers,” as eco-critical theorist Rob Nixon refers to them, by forcing readers to engage with our precarious future(s). In the course, we will consider the following: how do writers employ rhetoric to meet political/ecological agendas? Is consciousness-raising an effective form of activism? How do authors move beyond consciousness-raising in cli-fi works to produce human action in support of their agenda? Is fictional literature an effective medium for activist work? During this class, we will work to understand the implications of cli-fi works on the environmental movement, and how literary engagement can be a successful addition to ongoing climate efforts.