Darwin’s Bastards

Darwin’s Bastards, D&M

A collection of speculative fiction written by writers who (mostly) aren’t known for their speculative fiction. You might have wondered how Zsuzsi Gartner and D&M’s project could possibly work. I’m biased. I have a story in the collection. But I love the results. Great contributions from Adam Lewis Shroeder, Elyse Friedman, Lee Henderson, Sheila Heti, Anosh Irani, lots of others.

A strong dystopian fragrance hangs over these stories. But the stories suggest in total that we’ve arrived at a particular point in history when it comes to speculation. We’re past shiny optimism. But we tend to roll our eyes at romantic depression too. Characters in these stories may hope reflexively, without much obvious justification for doing so. But they do hope, do aspire. They don’t despair. Go bastards.

D&M has published this book, and made a funny video too. I’m really proud to be part of this one.