Special Guest Curtis Ippolito

On Fire and Under Water is a new crime fiction anthology from Rock and a Hard Place Press. The anthology explores the intersection of climate change and crime through the lens of 15 short stories from some of today’s best crime fiction writers.

Edited by Anthony Award-winning author Curtis Ippolito and the editorial team at RHP Press, the stories peel back the curtain on the ways in which climate change impacts real people in their most desperate hour.

Jeffrey finds bodies washed up on the shore and takes their money. When we first meet him, he has also taken a watch. Jeffrey tells us, “I don’t read names on cards or stare at pictures too much. It’s easier that way.” Jeffrey is trying to do right by his sister, Denise, and her daughter, Hazel. Denise’s sound and look remind him of Mumzie, their mother.

Questions for Curtis Ippolito:

1. How did this anthology come about? What made you think climate change and crime fiction belonged together, and what kind of stories were you hoping to find when you opened submissions?
2. As editor, what surprised you most about the submissions? Were there recurring themes, settings, or types of crimes that appeared again and again? What ultimately distinguished the fifteen stories you selected?
3. Crime fiction often asks what drives an ordinary person to cross a moral line. How does climate change change that equation? Does environmental crisis create new kinds of criminals—or simply expose motivations that have always existed?
4. Throughout the anthology, the villains aren’t always people. Sometimes they’re corporations, governments, or systems that leave ordinary people with impossible choices. In what ways was that a conscious theme in these stories?
5. Crime fiction has always reflected contemporary anxieties—from Prohibition to the Cold War to cybercrime. Do you think climate change is becoming the defining backdrop for the next generation of crime fiction?
6. You said this anthology “uses crime fiction as a way to explore the humanity and atrocities of this crisis.” What do you hope readers take away after finishing the collection?