A writer using the power of story to inform and stimulate empathy, and whose trilogy on the climate crisis explores the challenges facing young people today.
I am a semi-retired professor of English literature at Østfold University College, Halden, Norway.
I am an author of both scientific and fictional texts. I’m currently writing a trilogy on the climate crisis. Based on scientific research and the belief in the power of story to both inform and stimulate empathy, my trilogy explores the challenges facing young people today. My primary target group is eighteen- to thirty-five-year olds. It is my hope that my trilogy will be used as a basis for discussion in high-school and university classrooms. Book one, Katja’s World Game: The Game Begins, is on Amazon. Book two, Katja’s World Game: The Understory, will soon be published. My trilogy offers hope.
Born in Cambridge in 1953, I moved to Devon when I was five. I have always loved the countryside. Now living in Trollhättan, Sweden, I enjoy long walks in the forests and along the canal. My husband and I live so closely to nature that the local deer population have discovered a paradise in our large garden: Free food, plenty of space to sunbathe, and little contact with human-beings (they come at night)!
Why am I writing a trilogy on the climate crisis? Well, the practical answer is "I have time" now that I am semi-retired. But the most important reason is that I wish to awaken awareness of the seriousness of our situation. Having just finished reading Jean M. Twenge's iGen. Why Today's Super-Connected kids are Growing up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy - and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood, I realise more and more that climate change must be presented to young people, i.e. those born after 1995, in a way that enables them to identify with the problems, empathise, and act. My six characters, all students at a university in Bath, South-West England, are learning about the environment and how to write about it.
I hope that my trilogy will be used in high-school and university classrooms, as a basis for discussion. This is already happening in the US, Slovakia and Norway. I also have contact with several schools and universities in Spain, Italy, South Korea and China. I give Zoom presentations -- national as well as international, on a regular basis. I am always interested in hearing from fellow authors and all who wish to spread knowledge about the climate crisis. I do believe that there is hope. And I do believe that we must give hope if we are to save our planet.