The Steep Climes Quartet is a series that examines the near-future through 2050 consequences of climate change through the lens of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, where subtle and acute consequences reveal the future world of climate crisis is already here.

One of the things that differentiates The Steep Climes Quartet from much of climate fiction is the series’ level of technical and policy literacy on adaptability, the grid, the economics undergirding clean energy and externalities of fossil fuel subsidies, and the technical challenges and roadmaps of clean energy buildout and integration. 

Much of climate fiction is a failure of imagination when it isn’t focused on the personal, everyday scale of people’s lives that merges human experience and actions with the climate crisis that happens on a planetary scale. Apocalyptic tales can be entertaining but miss the more interesting human stories that tie readers to our present challenges.

The Steep Climes Quartet is made up of Kill Well (taking place in 2026, published in Fall 2023), Dear Josephine, (taking place in 2029, published in Spring 2025), Over Brooklyn Hills, (taking place in 2035, published in Spring 2026), and Farm to Me (taking place in 2047, set to publish in Spring 2027).

Kill Well

Kill Well, the first book of the literary climate fiction series The Steep Climes Quartet, establishes the setting of a multi-decade climate transition and the through-characters of the series. The series starts off with a bang and ends up in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, exploring the difficulty of climate work and the struggle of paying attention to the climate crisis. People are worried about climate change while Trump is “President Big Oil Stooge” and the fossil fuel corporations are making bank, no matter who gets hurt.

Dear Josephine

Dear Josephine, the second book of The Steep Climes Quartet, deepens the through-series character development and expands the geographical and emotional scope. Dear Josephine takes place in 2029 and focuses on how people react to the growing climate crisis in all manner of behaviors—including murder—all the while there’s a fierce hurricane that shocks the nation. Centered in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, the series looks at the feelings, fears, and fantasies of those trying to live their lives amid a world in turmoil.

Over Brooklyn Hills

It’s 2035 in Over Brooklyn Hills, the third book of The Steep Climes Quartet. Climate progress is being made and positive political pressures and social expectations are solidifying, but life goes on, just as the rising temperatures do. Feelings heat up, too, in response to Great Barrington involuntarily hosting refugees from New York City under a long heatwave. Can our society—writ both small and large—weather problems and work together?

Farm to Me

Farm to Me is the final book of The Steep Climes Quartet. It is 2047 and temperatures keep creeping up, albeit slowly. There are now many climate mitigations in play, including a renaissance of regenerative agriculture in the Northeast in response to falling yields in drought-ridden Western and Midwestern agri-businesses. Social structures are changing, but glacially and with all the baggage humans bring. Farm to Me considers the issue of aging in a climate crisis and hands the readers off with a look at the long-term prospects being faced by the young with their inescapable mixture of desperation and determination.