Book industry figures create climate action group

Writer Sophie Cunningham, children’s author Lorna Hendry and Berbay sales and marketing manager Kirsty Wilson have founded an industry action group to address climate change.

The Book Industry for Climate Action Group (BICAG) is a ‘literary-focused group that actively encourages curiosity and rebellion’. Other founding members of the group include The Garret podcast host Astrid Edwards, Readings Kids bookseller Angela Crocombe, and a number of Black Inc. staff, including head of marketing and publicity Kate Nash, associate publisher Jo Rosenberg, editorial and production director Kirstie Innes-Will, and production manager Marilyn de Castro. The newly formed group said in a statement: ‘The climate emergency is the defining issue of our times and there has never been a more urgent need to understand our predicament. As always, it is books that have the power to inspire and transform us.’

The group’s first action is the creation of a reading list called Books for the Climate Emergency, which offers recommendations of fiction, nonfiction, classics, young adult and children’s books.

‘The implications of climate change are escalating and, as with everything, there is a book to help with that,’ says Cunningham. ‘There are books to help kids understand what’s going on. There are books that allow you to engage imaginatively with the crisis, and ones that give you the kind of practical advice that makes a complex situation less overwhelming.’

Copies of the reading list will be available at writers festivals and bookshops nationally, according to the group, and it is also available for download here.

BICAG is looking for new members to join, and anyone interested can contact the group via email info@bicag.org or on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

Tags: climatechange

Category: Local news