AustLit

'Because of its looping, non-linear structure, the short story cycle is ideally suited to
capture the everyday experience of the Anthropocene, particularly as it manifests
through encounters with climate disaster. The dualistic nature of the short story cycle
demands that its narratives be at once self-sufficient and interrelated. Its simultaneously
fragmented and unified structure has the potential to address the complex
interconnections and enmeshments of human and environmental elements in the
Anthropocene in ways that work to integrate the consideration of climate disasters into
everyday life. A Constant Hum (2019) by Alice Bishop, Florida (2018) by Lauren Groff
and How High We Go in the Dark (2022) by Sequoia Nagamatsu are all story cycles
that centre, in some respects, on climate disasters. This article compares and contrasts
how these authors approach disaster as a unifying theme or focus in their respective
short story cycles, exploring their use of the non-linear form to address the ways in
which disaster works to reshape landscape and identity, and express the mesh of
human/non-human interaction that typifies life in the Anthropocene.' (Introduction)