This month, we’re reading books that were longlisted for the Climate Fiction Prize!

Helm by Sarah Hall. The Helm Wind is a strong wind that blows down from the Pennines in northern England–the only named wind in the UK. In this novel, Helm is a mischievous, godlike being–an elemental force that loves watching human activity as much as it enjoys destroying their efforts. Chapters narrated with Helm’s sky-high, geological-time perspective are alternated with chapters following various human characters who become obsessed with Helm, from a Neolithic seer to an atmospheric scientist studying modern pollution.

The Price of Everything by Jon McGoran, a thriller set in a near future world where extreme wealth disparity and climate change force people to take desperate measures to survive. We were thrilled to see a Philadelphia writer represented on the 2026 Climate Fiction Prize long list!

Read more about this prize and its shortlist: Climate fiction prize announces finalists including Madeleine Thien and Robbie Arnott (The Guardian, March 18, 2026)

What we’re watching

Hoppers (2026)

One of us went to an 11-year-old’s birthday party this month, and watched this Disney film along with a dozen kids–who loved it. The chaperones, perhaps surprisingly, liked it too: beyond the cute animal antics, there are philosophies of the natural world that we can get behind. “It’s hard to be mad when you’re part of something big,” the main character’s grandmother tells her; that advice provides the moral backbone of the movie, along with the ideas that humans are part of the natural world and that the spaces we see as empty are actually full of life.