Polycrisis Pollyanna

E.J. Swift's Clarke Award-winningnovel connects policy decisions withsocietal change and progress.(Image via Goodreads)Although the word “Pollyanna” is now a pejorative term for someone who is excessively optimistic and passive in the face of calamity, the protagonist of Eleanor Porter’s eponymous 1913 novel displayed an optimism that was neither passive nor uncritical. The Pollyanna for whom the term is named is a character whose optimism spurs her to action in the face of adversity, leading her to improve the lives of those around her.Released a year ago today, the solarpunk novel When There Are Wolves Again by E.J. Swift could be described as a 21st Century Polyanna — specifically what the original novel offered rather than the negative connotation that “Polyanna” acquired over the past century.Set in the United Kingdom and chronicling the intertwined lives of two women living through turbulent decades between 2020 and 2070, When There Are Wolves Again is a portrait of optimism in…