‘Everywhere’s Burning’: Realising Climate Change and Activism Through Bushfires in Australian Young Adult Literature

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As the climate crisis worsens, young people are becoming active ecocitizens and leaders in climate activism. YA literature serves as a safe space for readers to share traumatic experiences and see complex representations of climate anxiety and activism. This article argues that bushfires in Australian YA literature provide a point of access for readers to consider the multi-faceted, global problem of climate change. I examine experiences of climate anxiety, activism, and the devastating effect of climate change through the depiction of bushfires in Helena Fox’s contemporary Australian YA novel, The Quiet and the Loud (2023), set during the 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires in Australia. These shared experiences enable all readers affected by climate change to engage with the narrative alongside their own story to develop nuanced understandings of the climate crisis and activism. I argue that Fox navigates the complexities of despair and hope in the context of climate change, anxiety, and activism in YA literature through the manifestation of slow violence (hidden, delayed attritional destruction of the environment due to factors such as pollution) and solastalgia (the distress and loss felt due to negative change to a beloved environment). Through her empathetic and cathartic exploration of fire, Fox writes fiction for the Anthropocene generation, making climate change and activism accessible, and empowering young voices and validating their personal experiences.