Today Tractor Beam starts an international translation program with the release of its Spring 2025 issue Generation in Portuguese. The work is carried out in partnership with literary translators guided by Professor Elton Luiz Aliandro Furlanetto at the Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul in Campo Grande Brazil.

Tractor Beam operates as an editorially independent speculative fiction outlet focused on regenerative agriculture and soil health. The publication promotes soilpunk a developing genre centered on hopeful ecologically grounded narratives that counter apocalyptic themes.

From June 5 World Environment Day onward the Portuguese translations will appear on Substack next to the original English texts which will also be hosted on the platform for the first time. The project extends an open invitation to translators across the globe.

Our debut issue Generation examines renewal possibility and fresh starts grounded in Indigenous knowledge and ancestral wisdom said Claire Gustavson co-founder and co-editor of Tractor Beam. It presents soil and the natural world as tools for shaping futures an idea deeply connected to Brazilian speculative fiction traditions. Tractor Beam has always aimed to improve access by bringing forward-looking visions closer to everyday life rather than distant planets. A shared future cannot exist unless it reaches everyone.

The partnership began when Elton Furlanetto a researcher in science fiction and utopian studies and translator of Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time reached out to Tractor Beam for a literary translation workshop at UFMS. The group now includes students from several Brazilian universities after they read the first issue and proposed translating it.

We hope soilpunk will motivate readers here in Brazil Furlanetto noted. The students formed a study circle that evolved into a translation workshop and participants from other regions joined in. They enjoyed Tractor Beam and so did I.

The effort produced meaningful connections. Renan Bernardo whose story Maitake-by-the-Sea opened the first issue is Brazilian and usually publishes science fiction and fantasy in English. The translation offered a chance to return the work to his original language and he advised the team throughout. Furlanetto also connected the editors with Jana Bianchi a Brazilian writer and editor whose piece appeared in the recent Underground issue.

Speculative fiction often moves toward English-language markets observed Lana Z Porter co-founder and co-editor of Tractor Beam. Yet writers like Renan have long carried multiple traditions and visions. Returning his story to Portuguese and encountering authors such as Jana along the way shows that this genre is not merely an export but a shared legacy and we value our part in supporting it.

With the Portuguese edition Tractor Beam invites translators literary groups and academic teams worldwide to adapt soilpunk into additional languages. Interested parties may contact the editors at the provided address.

About Tractor Beam

Tractor Beam is an independent speculative fiction platform rooted in the regenerative mission of Tractor Beverage Company an organic enterprise that believes improved food systems begin with the land and its stewards. The outlet releases short fiction comics illustrations and commentary on ecological imagination cultural narratives and regenerative futures under the soilpunk banner.

Learn more at tractorbeam.earth.

About the UFMS translation group

Mao na Massa Grupo de Estudos e Oficina de Traducao Literaria is led by Professor Elton Luiz Aliandro Furlanetto at UFMS in Campo Grande Brazil. The collective unites students and translators from various universities to explore literary translation as both academic study and creative practice. Earlier work includes a Brazilian Portuguese edition of Omenana Magazine Issue 31.

MEDIA CONTACT
Claire Gustavson
(917) 698-8207

SOURCE Tractor Beverage Company