Aric McBay is an organizer, a farmer, and author of seven books. He writes and speaks about effective social movements, and has organized campaigns around climate justice, prisoner justice, Indigenous solidarity, pipelines, unionization, and other causes.
Fiction
Inversion
On a mysterious green planet renewed by fire, vibrant collectivist communities have long lived in harmony with both its strange ecosystem and each other—until the day imperialist forces arrive. Learn more…
“A masterful worldbuilding feat…” —Publisher’s Weekly, starred review
“Inversion is such a pleasure to read—it is richly backgrounded and genuinely engrossing. There are full and contradictory lives here, as well as a sense of immediacy, urgency, and awe. I found real and hard-won delight in it.” —Daniel Lavery, New York Times bestselling author of Texts from Jane Eyre
“Aric McBay’s Inversion is a masterpiece of utopian resistance, where comprehension and cooperation are the keys to survival. The interconnected cultures of Germinal, like fire-adapted seeds, have developed into an environmental and social utopia … It’s hope in a pocket universe, where the ability to look forward and back and inward is a deliberate, sustainable choice.” —Octavia Cade, author of The Impossible Resurrections of Grief
Kraken Calling
In the Octavia Butlerian vein of the Parable of the Sower novels, comes a new work from political activist and author Aric McBay. Kraken Calling toggles between the years 2028 and 2051 to give us the experience, with breathtaking realism, of what might happen in just one generation to a society already on the brink of collapse.
In 2028, activists fight an increasingly desperate battle against the climate emergency and capitalism, but their every victory brings down repression. Meanwhile, discontented by protests and polemics, a radical movement named Kraken grows in the shadows.
A novel, available from Seven Stories Press. Blurbs and more…
Kraken Whispers
This interactive text adventure takes place just before the beginning of my novel Kraken Calling. You can play it now, free, in your browser.
Non-Fiction Books
Full Spectrum Resistance
In Full Spectrum Resistance, author and organizer Aric McBay leads us through key lessons of movements through history and around the world. From the Suffragists to the Black Panthers, from Nelson Mandela to Gay Liberation, McBay illuminates the paths and pitfalls that movements must navigate, and the principles that make them succeed.
Full of stirring case studies and practical checklists, this book showcases the hard won lessons that movements for justice and freedom have learned. ( Dedicated site / get the book )
Direct Action Works
A legal handbook for civil disobedience and non-violent direct action in Canada. This collaboration with feminist lawyer Pamela Cross was first released in February 2020 at the beginning of the massive Wet’suwet’en solidarity actions.
You can download this entire book for free (10mb PDF).
See older books here.
Select Other Work
Skeleton Press
Newspaper Column
My column Out Standing in Our Field, about food and farming issues as well as social and environmental justice, ran in Ontario newspapers for 5 years.
Sustainable farmer story-telling
I was very glad to interview amazing farmers and write the text for Fields of Hope, a beautiful coffee-table-style photography book by Andrée Anna Thorpe.
I was happy to be one of the movement story-tellers in this incredibly well-researched history of the National Farmers Union in Canada.
As part of a project to raise public understanding of local food, I enjoyed writing this series of success stories about twelve local farms and their farmers.
Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar
For many years I’ve supported this wonderful calendar by editing and copy-editing articles from activists and political prisoners. In 2021, I facilitated a twentieth-anniversary re-design, to freshen the interior aesthetic and make it more legible and accessible, especially as the number of aging political prisoners continues to grow.
Workshops, Talks, and Interviews
Select Recent Talks and Workshops:
- How to talk to the media about climate justice
- Intro to Non-Violent Direct Action (NVDA)
- Advanced NVDA strategy
- Climate Action for Farmers
- What COVID-19 has taught us about local food
For workshops and interviews, please email talks at aricmcbay dot org.
Aric McBay
