Short story published: “Nadat lobbyist Tarik Gülmez met Roundup wordt besproeid”

Look at Johan Klein Haneveld go. He’s a prolific science fiction short story writer in the Netherlands and has taken it upon him to publish a series of climate change anthologies with Uitgeverij Macc.

My work featured in the earlier ones and another story of mine is now reprinted in the latest collection, titled “Opstand tegen de ondergang”, or “Uprising against the downfall”. The theme was eco-SF stories with a more positive outlook. How do we meet the challenges ahead, how do we pass through the eye of the needle? In that light, my story might be a weird one because it’s a bit of a cynical tale at heart.

I’ll spare you the full Dutch title again, which in English translates to “After lobbyist Tarik Gülmez is doused in Roundup”. It’s about a glib EU lobbyist for chemical firm Bayer who, in the near future of 2030, is promoting the latest batch of GMO crops and pesticides. In the meantime, his wife is pregnant and intent on augmenting their child with genetic modification, to future-proof her for the coming climate catastrophe. Surprise, surprise, Tarik wants nothing to do with that and over the course of the story radicalizes into a pretty extremist version of himself.

It was published originally in the “Verteerbaar” art publication in a tiny run, then reprinted in German in Future Fiction Magazine and in Chinese in Science Fiction World Translations. This latest reprint in Dutch makes it my most oftenest published story so far! I don’t know if that says anything about the times, because as I mentioned it’s rather nasty with an unlovable, Teflon-slick main character.

So yeah, probably does.