The BTS Center is excited to announce its first Summer Fiction Book Club! During June, July, and August, we will immerse ourselves in the creative world of fiction books while daring to explore challenging topics related to climate change. Each month, participants will read a selected book on their own time, and then we will gather virtually to discuss as a group. In addition to small group discussion, a guest conversation partner will offer their thoughts on the book and share about its impact in their life. 

We will be exploring the following novels:

• On Thursday, June 29: People of the Whale by Chickasaw poet and Pulitzer Finalist Linda Hogan, with guest conversationalist Ryan Darr
• On Thursday, July 20: How Beautiful We Were by New York Times bestseller and award-winning author Imbolo Mbue, with guest conversationalist Maya Williams
• On Thursday, August 24:  The Ministry for the Future by New York Times bestseller and award-winning author Kim Stanley Robinson, with guest conversationalist Derrick Weston

Why summer?
Let’s face it: summer is changing. Gone are the sunny Goldilocks days when everything was just right and any imposing threats, like the tale’s three bears, did no actual harm. Today, the realities of climate change and ecological injustice mean that things are not right and that dangers present real-life consequences. No longer a time of carefree leisure, summer is now the season of wildfires and orange smoky skies, drought and heat waves, floods and extreme weather events, melting ice caps, and more. Summer, therefore, is a dynamic reminder of the effects of climate change.

Why fiction?
Simply put, fiction has the potential to reveal present realities and imagine possible futures. Through truth-telling, a good story confronts the current systems of power, the unequal material conditions, or the overwhelming circumstances that prevent all life from flourishing. It gives voice to whomever or whatever has been silenced, forgotten, or ignored — the lives of marginalized humans and exploited nonhumans, the values or perspectives that advocate for collective good, or the complex emotions that humans may experience during planetary polycrisis. Fiction can also be a window through which we envision compelling and creative possibilities, whether social, ecological, political, or economic. Imagining what worlds are possible creates the opportunity for us to build towards a better and more just future.

Why a book club?
Reading fiction together is a dynamic way for humans to make sense of the world(s) in which we live. By coming together to discuss these books, we also collectively share the weightiness of the subjects. Readers may find the book club to be a space where they can encounter fictional worlds, exercise their imaginative capacities, and even explore and experience their own emotions through the narrative lens of fiction. The Summer Fiction Book Club’s collective format encourages everybody to reconnect with themselves, with community, with earth, and with the divine. 

Why you?
In response to the cries of the earth and the cries of the poor, the task for spiritual leaders today is to press deeper into the power and potential of storytelling. Storytelling is meaning-making — the way we make sense of life, truth, and beauty. There is no greater witness to the depth and diversity of such narrative power than the sacred texts and oral traditions of religions, spiritualities, and indigenous traditions across the world. They attempt to say something about realities beyond the grasp of human language: the divine or sacred, love and community, life and death, morality and justice, and so on. Many sacred texts and oral traditions teach us that, when faced with enormous obstacles, the pathways toward healing and transformation begin by stepping into a story that is larger than our circumstances. Guiding our communities through climate change is no different. We hope that the Summer Fiction Book Club will be a valuable exercise of your moral and ecological capacities for spiritual care in a climate-changed world.

Join us from June through August as we explore spellbinding stories and discuss their voices, visions, and themes.