Art of the Near Future + Book Event
Hello, everyone! I hope your June is off to a wonderful start.
Art of the Near Future World
Art of the Near Future World is a project by Ramon Gonzalez to celebrate the act of imagining futures we’ll live to see. In his own words:
I want to celebrate, encourage, and help us – and yes, you and me – create art that imagines and sets itself in the many possible folds of our near future world.
I don't think there's been enough of that kind of art. Art that imagines the near future world is best created close to the present, and our worthy novels and books lag today by a year or more…
Yes, we can draw, and take photos, and make videos, and so much of what we consume is already in those forms. But still, making visual art of our near future is not yet as accessible to everyone.
Short fiction is the way we can all quickly imagine our near future.
Near-future SF is probably my favorite genre of speculative fiction. Indeed, it’s why the Julia Z books are set “twenty minutes in the future.” The immediacy is part of the thrill.
There’s a special challenge in writing near-future SF: it has to not feel dated the minute it’s out there in the world. The trick is to tell a story that gets at something eternal, such that even when (or especially when) your “predictions” turn out to be wrong, the stories are still worth reading.
I’m very pleased and honored that the inaugural edition of Art of the Near Future World picked my story, “Good Stories,” published in The Digital Aesthete: Human Musings on the Intersection of Art and AI, edited by Alex Shvartsman, as the winner.
“Good Stories” is about why humans may still want to create art in a world flooded with AI-generated content, and why AI’s more revolutionary role may be in how we consume art, not how we make it. I hope you can take a moment to read it and let me know your thoughts.
The Phoenix Pencil Company
On Wednesday, June 11, at 7:00 PM, I’ll be at the Brookline Booksmith to celebrate with Allison King her debut novel, The Phoenix Pencil Company. RSVP and get a copy of the book!
Allison is an engineer, author, and world traveler. All three are on display in this magical tale about the power of storytelling to restore our truths.
Monica Tsai spends most days on her computer, journaling the details of her ordinary life and coding for a program that seeks to connect strangers online. A self-proclaimed recluse, she has always struggled to make friends and, as a college freshman, finds herself escaping into a digital world, counting the days until she can return home to her beloved grandparents. They are now in their nineties, and Monica worries about them constantly— especially her grandmother, Yun, who survived two wars in China before coming to the United States and whose memory has begun to fade.
Though Yun rarely speaks of her past, Monica is determined to find the long-lost cousin she was separated from years ago.
I’m so excited to talk to Allison about her extraordinary book. Hope to see you there!
Until next time, be well.