Author Stories • Narrative Architecture Series
An Interview with Kyra Dhillon
Today, we sit down with Kyra Dhillon—a solarpunk visionary translating regenerative design, communal joy, and architectural storytelling into fiction that glows with possibility.
Interviewer: Kyra, welcome. Your stories are often labeled “solarpunk.” What does that term mean to you, and what was the initial spark for embracing it?
Kyra: For me, solarpunk is less a genre and more a design challenge. It asks: how do we build futures where technology, ecology, and community feel inseparable—and desirable? The spark was watching sunrise hit a row of rooftop gardens in Singapore. I realized optimism could feel tactile if we showed the cables, moss, and human hands holding it together.
Interviewer: Sky Scrawl talks a lot about “Narrative Architecture.” How does that philosophy show up in your solarpunk work?
Kyra: I blueprint each story like a district. Plot beats behave like energy grids, character arcs mirror water cycles, and emotional pivots act as public squares. Readers should feel how light travels through a chapter or how a collective decision reshapes the skyline. Narrative architecture is how I make optimism structural, not decorative.
Interviewer: Your protagonists are rarely lone heroes. Why is community so central in your stories?
Kyra: Solarpunk collapses the myth of solitary genius. I'm interested in committees, co-ops, and messy consensus. Conflict still exists, but the solution is never one brilliant mind; it's a network of people debugging a future together. Writing that way reminds us that hope is collaborative work.
Interviewer: Where do you find the research and inspiration to build such tangible ecosystems?
Kyra: I split my time between climate labs, community gardens, and speculative design forums. I also spend hours with indigenous architects and organizers who have been doing regenerative work long before we gave it a new label. The fiction only works if readers can feel real soil, smell saltwater turbines, and recognize governance models already being piloted.
Interviewer: Optimism can feel naive. How do you balance hope with the realities of climate grief?
Kyra: Hope without rigor is propaganda; grief without action is paralysis. I let characters feel the full weight of loss, but I anchor every chapter in a tangible adjustment—a redesigned floodplain, a mutual-aid ritual, a hacked policy. The tension between what hurts and what heals keeps the story honest.
Interviewer: Can you share anything about Aurora Commons, your upcoming Sky Scrawl project?
Kyra: Aurora Commons is set on a floating cooperative that drifts along equatorial currents. The city remembers every decision via embedded light, so when a policy shifts, the skyline literally changes hue. The protagonists are maintenance choreographers keeping that memory system alive while a corporate entity tries to privatize the sun.
Interviewer: That sounds incredible. Where can readers plug into the process?
Kyra: I host quarterly design salons with engineers, gardeners, and readers. We stream them, release the schematics under Creative Commons, and invite everyone to remix. Sign up for the Sky Scrawl newsletter for invites, and share what you prototype—we fold the best ideas back into canon.
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