Issue 302, ‘Zoefuturism’—Call for proposals

calls for submissions, invitations, and opportunities

“Scavengers reign” (2023)

Vector 302 is guest-edited by Yen Ooi and Stephen Oram, with Phoenix Alexander as the editor-in-chief.

Zoefuturism takes its name from the Greek word for life, zoe (ζωή, zoí). It is a futurism of connectedness, engagement, and relationality, a futurism of ‘life-becomings.’ Inspired by the study of zoetology that was coined by Prof Roger Ames, and the fact that DNA in all living things are bringers of change, zoefuturism explores the reality of human nature as human ‘becomings’ (rather than ‘beings’) where constant change rooted in all nature is acknowledged as fundamental to living. Though this inspiration is from ancient East Asian philosophy, zoefuturism doesn’t belong within one culture or philosophy. It is a concept that is shared throughout innumerable teachings around the world that is ancient and new, encompassing many philosophies, knowledge systems, teachings, way of lives, and religions.

For example, zoefuturist stories would warrant explorations from indigenous knowledge, borrowing this quote from Robin Wall Kimmerer’s preface in Braiding Sweetgrass: ‘a braid of stories meant to heal our relationship with the world’. Zoefuturist stories might also comment on what Tyson Yunkaporta notes in Sand Talk, that humans’ evolution has created ‘a global diaspora of refugees [domesticated humans] severed not only from land, but from the sheer genius that comes from belonging in symbiotic relation to it.’ Or, zoefuturist stories could relate to the awe projected by Stephen Jay Gould’s research and writing, where he tells us that:

…if anything in the natural world merits a designation as ‘awesome,’ I nominate the continuity of the tree of life for 3.5 billion years. The earth experienced severe ice ages, but never froze completely, not for a single day. Life fluctuated through episodes of global extinction, but never crossed the zero line, not for one millisecond. DNA has been working all this time, without an hour of vacation or even a moment of pause to remember the extinct brethren of a billion dead branches shed from an evergrowing tree of life.

These interactions constantly shape us and our world through changes and ‘life-becomings’, regardless of how static we might believe things to be–a misconception that has been planted through an assumed binarism or ‘ontology [that] privileges “being per se” and a categorical language with its “essence” and “attribute” dualism, giving us substances as property-bearers, and properties that are borne, respectively.’

To welcome zoefuturism into the folds of science fiction, we would love to invite contributions that bring to the forefront stories of ‘becomings’ in a world that is connected and relational. We hope that this issue will become the foundation for conversations on zoefuturism, and with that in mind, we are excited for the pieces themselves to be new, relational, and becoming!

Some suggested questions/topics around zoefuturism:

  • How zoefuturism changes the landscape of science fiction
  • Exploration of the kind of futures zoefuturism could inspire (climate policies, environmental studies, R&D, medical science, politics, immigration, jobs, etc.)
  • Bringing new perspectives to past and present science fiction
  • The voices that speak and the voices that get heard
  • Communities’ relationships with nature, technology, the cosmos, and more
  • Enabling change in times of difficulties
  • Bringing new meanings to translations and polylingual fiction
  • How can we dream, create, and write an open, undefined future?
  • How does AI and technology affect the becomings of life, human, non-human and artificial? 

Please submit your proposal by 1st June 2025 to vector.submissions@gmail.com, including:

  • a 150-500 word proposal, an idea of the format and estimated length;
  • a short 50-100 word bio or CV.

Articles should generally be between 1,000 and 8,000 words. We seek writings that are carefully grounded in scholarly research, while also being clear, engaging, and suitable for a broad audience (including non-academics). To embrace a future of becomings, we also welcome diverse formats that might reflect ideas of zoefuturism. Feel free to submit a proposal that includes as much detail as possible. 

Further thoughts…

How is zoefuturism presented in science fiction so far?

As science fiction trends turn towards addressing the anxieties of today, zoefuturism is presented through stories that bring to the forefront humanity’s relationships with each other, nature, environments, things, the cosmos and all that encompasses them. Genres like hopepunk, solarpunk, lunarpunk, thrutopia, and climate fiction, and authors like Becky Chambers, Ryka Aoki, Ruthana Emrys, and Regina Kanyu Wang could be seen as pioneers. These stories move away from the traditional Western (and science fiction) tropes of the Hero’s Journey, techno-Utopianism, and colonialism. They challenge binarisms of utopias versus dystopias, of hard science fiction versus soft science fiction, and more. They look to create a balanced storyworld that is realistic in its relationships and connectedness, bringing the focus back to the becomings of the human experience.

Further explorations…

Media

Articles

Academia 

Published by Vector editors

Published

Leave a comment