‘The Strange Truth’ – Cat Sparks – bid is at $80

Cat’s curiosity and creative breadth has led her down a multitude of diverse paths.

Aside from writing, she has traversed the world as an archeological photographer, supported fellow genre writers as a publisher, and photographed and danced for climate preservation as a radical activist, to name a few.

Throughout her diverse and extensive career, she has also appeared on a variety of festival panels and produced numerous sci-fi anthologies, such as ‘EcoPunk!’with Liz Grzyb and ‘Agog! Ripping Reads’ as well as over 90 short stories and a fantastic speculative fiction novel titled ‘Blue Lotus’.

‘When I was five, I wanted to be a vulcanologist and I still have the volcano book my parents gave me,’ she laughs. ‘Took a wrong turn somewhere. So many regrets…’

Cat is sharp and witty, and possessed of a steadfast zest for life and a seriously adventurous spirit – asked what she would like to do in future, she said without hesitation, ‘To visit outer space.’

Above, Cat stopped on the side of the road to get bleached kangaroo bones she wants to photograph.

Unlike many creatives, who tend towards introversion, she has a consistent, life-long appreciation for the creative communities that have become her home.

She has an unquenchable interest in being part of the world and is always moving amongst fellow creatives and activists, involved and engaged. You might find her taking photos at an Extinction Rebellion protest, working at recycling/reusing initiatives like the amazing and sadly extinct ‘The Green Shed’ or founding an independent publishing press with her partner Rob Hood, known, during its life time as ‘Agog!’.

She insists that much of her accomplishments have come through dogged force of will rather than reliance on innate talent. Hand in hand with her energetic capacity for life, comes a hunger for knowledge.

This drive has increased exponentially since the commencement of her PhD in 2012, now completed. During this process her research skills were thoroughly honed.

Most of all, Cat is concerned about the future of our world. She speaks with poetic eloquence and urgency of the climate crisis and the role of climate fiction in illuminating current, contributing socio-cultural issues. She conveys vital and complex information with a dry sense of humour and the kind of raw honesty and emotion that comes from heartfelt investment.

‘I am either known as a science fiction author or ‘the lady who posts all those bird photos on socials.’

Cat’s writing falls into the category of speculative fiction and climate fiction. Through a dystopian/futuristic lens, Cat explores societies current challenges with the added benefit of hindsight. This genre can be controversial, being a collision of many contentious areas. Science Fiction as a whole has often been diminished and climate change, if even acknowledged as real, can be difficult to maintain eye-contact with.

Cat attributes her love of and respect for speculative fiction to the fact that, growing up, her family did not perpetuate the ingrained distinction between science fiction and other literary forms. She remembers growing up on ‘Doctor Who’, ‘Star Wars’ and Frank Herbert’s ‘Dune’. She attributes ‘Dune’ particularly, as having such an impact on her that it forever altered her perception. Naming authors like Kim Stanley Robinson as inspiring figures for the genre Cat herself is a fierce advocate for the value of science fiction in helping inform our present and thus inspiring new approaches to the future.

‘Science fiction gives us an opportunity to think through and experience various possible scenarios and re-evaluate the present,’ she says.  ‘Climate fiction particularly, asks that we proceed in a way that does not sacrifice humanity’s future for any one individual’s present.’

‘Art, to me, is aesthetically charged communication; making something new that (hopefully) emerges as more than the sum of its parts.’

Even as Cat emphasises the importance of community in her own life, she also regards it as essential to navigating the climate crisis as we lurch forward unpredictably on the paths we have paved. When speaking of her debut novel ‘Lotus Blue’, Cat points to the number of characters as a response to the ‘ the tired trope of a singular hero.’

‘A heroic single hero is unrealistic, because significant and lasting change comes from networks of many small actions across time and space,’ Cat says.

Cat’s novel ‘Lotus Blue’  presents a post-apocalyptic future in which semi-sentient machines roam a desert-like landscape. This speculated future delves into the intriguing and unsettling concept of future humans who have lost the knowledge of how technologies work and so have little control over them.

You can hear cat talk about her book here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNWfTC4u7nc

Like her writing, Cat’s photography captures layers of culture and change. Many shots focus on urban surfaces with overlapping graffiti, remnants of old posters, stickers and peeling paint. These images combine quite delicate, ragged textures and loud, garish colours into snapshots of time passing. Cat’s kite has the same quality of overlapping images and textures.

The photograph above, like the bird images in this story, was taken by Cat, and depicts the tail end of the 2021 riots in Hong Kong. 

‘We are living in a period of rising climate crisis and other associated existential threats to life as we know it on the only habitable planet we can be certain exists,’ Cat said.

‘My kite features lines torn from vintage fairy tales collaged with plastic from damaged cars and other random bits and pieces (if you look hard you’ll see a tiny compass!). Fairy tales teach us that no matter how dark and twisted the forest, there is always a pathway through.

‘Our job is to find it and in that endeavour I see hope.’

Cat is a woman who does not just talk a good talk. She acts. She is a staunch and agile member of the DiscObedience Group in Canberra that dance as a form of protest – you can see her and some of the DiscObedience dancers on December 6 at 6.00pm at Smith’s Alternative when she and Isobelle talk about the intersection of art and activism.

Above, Cat and the DiscObedience group, dancing to raise awareness of the need to act now on climate change.

Cat’s father was a painter, and his beautiful landscapes now adorn the walls of her home, along with a great deal of other art. She was brought up to notice colour and shape in the world her writing is often simply working to describe internal images.

Cat has always been very aware of her surroundings and of changes in them that mark the passing of time and sociological change. ‘I grew up in Waverton on Sydney’s lower North Shore, a light industrial area that has since been completely drained of original character. Our family home has been replaced with a Mcmansion and the car park up the road is filled with boats.’

These days, she lives in Canberra, the unassuming underdog capital of Australia, cradled by beautiful, verdant mountains. She moved there with her partner, award-winning horror writer Rob Hood, and two feline overlords, nine years ago, to close the gap between them and their colourful and artistic social life, and came to love the city.

‘Canberra is a surprisingly fabulous city: high quality contemporary amenities, yet the trees are full of birds and kangaroos hop down the streets.’

Right now, she is thinking of a second novel while readying herself to prepare an exhibition of her photographs. ‘I am attempting to write another novel, however this year has proved to be horribly distracting.’

Asked if she had any final message, she said, ‘For the love of literally everything, can we please start taking the climate crisis seriously?’

by Adelaide Stolba