What does the climate crisis look and feel like from the Western Balkans? Twelve stories from Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro are now available to international readers in the English edition of Homo Climaticum: The Balkans 2026. To mark its release, we invite you to join us online on 15 October to discover the anthology and explore how storytelling can help us talk about climate change and imagine different futures.
Climate change is often communicated through numbers: degrees of warming, tonnes of emissions, drought records, flooded areas and projections of what the coming decades might bring. But what happens when we tell the climate crisis through stories?
Homo Climaticum: The Balkans 2026 brings together voices from a region already experiencing a changing climate, while carrying its own histories, inequalities, social tensions and ways of imagining the future. Through fiction, poetry and creative expression, the collection approaches the climate crisis not only as an environmental issue, but also as something that shapes our everyday lives, relationships and sense of what lies ahead.
Earlier this year, we published the regional edition of the collection following an open call for climate fiction. The call received 130 short stories and poems from across the region, written by authors from different generations. Twenty-eight works were selected for the regional anthology, including 12 written by young people between the ages of 18 and 30. Now, twelve of these works – three from each participating country – are available in English, bringing perspectives from the Western Balkans to a wider international audience.
Twelve stories, four countries, one changing climate
Different in style, atmosphere and visions of the future, the stories take readers into overheated cities, transformed landscapes and societies dealing not only with environmental change, but also with inequality, responsibility, belonging and our relationships with one another.
These stories are rooted in particular places, but the questions they raise reach far beyond the Balkans. What do we hold on to when the world around us changes? Who bears the consequences of a crisis they did least to create? What happens to our relationships and communities under pressure? And what kinds of futures are we still able to imagine?
Publishing the collection in English is an invitation to bring perspectives from the Western Balkans into a broader international conversation about climate change. The region is often spoken about; with this collection, we want readers elsewhere in Europe and beyond to encounter stories told from within it – through the imagination, concerns, humour, fears and hopes of people living here.
From stories to action: Join us online on 15 October
Over the past two years, STORY has brought together young people, youth workers and organisations from across the Western Balkans to explore climate change through storytelling, creative writing and art. Alongside Homo Climaticum, the project has produced Stories for Change, an educational manual designed to help youth workers, educators, teachers and youth organisations use storytelling and climate fiction in their own activities.
On 15 October 2026, from 10:00 to 11:30 CET, we invite you to join us online to discover the results of this journey and explore how they can be used beyond the project itself.
During the event, we will:
- introduce Homo Climaticum: The Balkans 2026 and the stories behind the regional initiative;
- share experiences and lessons learned from working with young people through climate fiction, storytelling and creative writing;
- present Stories for Change and practical ways to use it in youth work and climate education;
- explore why imagination, emotions and personal expression matter when we talk about climate change;
- discuss how these stories and methods can reach schools, youth organisations, communities and new projects.
The online event is open to youth workers, educators, teachers, youth and environmental organisations, NGOs, networks and anyone interested in climate education, storytelling and creative approaches to working with young people.
Event details
- Date: 15 October 2026
- Time: 10:00–11:30 CET
- Location: Online via Zoom
- Language: English
- Participation: Free of charge
Register here: https://forms.gle/DiWZfxQPLzBho9k99
Registered participants will receive the Zoom link by email.
Read the stories. Share them. Start a conversation.
The English edition of Homo Climaticum: The Balkans 2026 is available to read and download for free.
Download the English edition of Homo Climaticum: The Balkans 2026
We invite readers, educators, youth workers, climate activists and everyone curious about climate fiction to discover these twelve voices from the Western Balkans. Read the stories in classrooms and community spaces, discuss them with young people, share them across borders – or simply find a quiet place and allow yourself to enter the worlds they have created.
Join us on 15 October to explore the anthology, discover Stories for Change and consider how storytelling can help us connect, learn and imagine different futures.
The event is organised as part of the project “THE STORY OF THE 1.5°C LIMIT – Solutions and Storytelling of Youth from the Western Balkans”, co-funded by the European Union and the Ministry of Regional Investment Development and Cooperation with NGOs. The main goal of the STORY project is to strengthen the capacities of young people and youth organisations across the Western Balkans, enabling them to understand and advocate for solutions to the environmental crisis through civic education and art, particularly literature.