Global Dystopias

Meniscus

“'I felt no hunger but the habit of food struck me intensely. My nightgown was grubby and torn. My limbs were scraped, spotted with yellow bruises, but I felt no pain.” Short Story

What Used to Be Caracas

Years after an extinction event nearly wiped out humanity, a team of scientists search Venezuela for signs of life and evidence of what caused the tragedy. Short Story

Memoirs of an Imaginary Country

In a lost tale of Casanova, the citizens of a country at the center of the Earth must give up their home—and their women—to colonizers. Short Story

Adora

An aging AI researcher, alone with her robot companion, must make a difficult decision when the android begins to malfunction. Short Story

Cannibal Acts

In the aftermath of a flu pandemic that kills most of the population, a survivor, barricaded in Alaska, remembers her life while contemplating a grisly choice. Short Story

Athena Dreams of a Hollow Body

Once I learned of the existence of mothers, I decided to order one for myself.

The Reformatory

Stories are dangerous. They can get you killed.

Dulltopia

On the Dystopian Impulses of Slow Cinema

Philip K. Dick and the Fake Humans

We live in Philip K. Dick’s future, not George Orwell’s or Aldous Huxley’s.

A Strategy for Ruination

An interview with China Miéville

Sky Veins of Potosí

A tale of forbidden love in an age when corporations have replaced government.

Indefinitely

Life is for living, my dead mother said.

All the Places Without Windows

He will surprise her on the anniversary of the end.

My Last Client

“I wanted his body to begin and end elsewhere, at home, meaning his home, wherever that was, meaning even I, whose job was to include him, wanted him out.”

History Is a Dystopia

A conversation with novelist Tananarive Due on writing the past—and a way out of it.

Sunflowers

Eventually, it became obvious that we didn’t have a mission. Or our mission, for what it’s worth, was the lack thereof.

Don’t Press Charges and I Won’t Sue

“The intake process begins with dismantling her personal space, one mantle at a time.”

Waving at Trains

Nalo Hopkinson on the politics of dystopia, writing from the Global South, and the enduring importance of black mermaids.

Saving Orwell

He has been pressed into service of all sorts of causes, but the real Orwell remains unknown.

To Map, to Warn, to Hope

Introducing Global Dystopias

Fashion Week: Central Occupied Territory

So the thing about the Death Squads is that their outfits are super cute.

All Rights Reserved

Every word is Trademarked™, Restricted® or Copyrighted©. Why was this something to celebrate?

Make Margaret Atwood Fiction Again

Junot Díaz talks with Atwood about The Handmaid’s Tale, political dystopias, and Drake.

The Dystopia Next Door

A new generation of young Polish novelists has turned to dystopia to express Poland’s cultural and economic contradictions.

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