Make Shift

Science fiction stories of pandemic-inspired ingenuity, grit, and determination.

This new volume in the Twelve Tomorrows series of science fiction anthologies looks at how science and technology--existing or speculative--might help us create a more equitable and hopeful world after the coronavirus pandemic. The original stories presented here, from a diverse collection of authors, offer no miracles or simple utopias, but visions of ingenuity, grit, and incremental improvement. In the tradition of inspirational science fiction that goes back to Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, these writers remind us that we can choose our future, and show us how we might build it.Introduction vii
Gideon Lichfield
1 "A Veil Was Broken": Afrofutrist Ytasha L. Womack on the Work of Science Fiction in the 2020s 1
Wade Roush
2 Little Kowloon 11
Adrian Hon
3 Patriotic Canadians Will Not Hoard Food! 27
Madeline Ashby
4 Interviews of Importance 43
Malka Older
5 Jaunt 57
Ken Liu
6 Koronaparty 77
Rich Larson
7 Making Hay 91
Cory Doctorow
8 The Price of Attention 105
Karl Schroeder
9 Mixology for Humanity's Sake 123
D. A. Xiaolin Spires 
10 A Necessary Being 143
Indrapramit Das
11 Vaccine Season 159
Hannu Rajaniemi 
Contributors 173"[These stories'] conceptual, daring and compassionate narratives . . . perform with brio and clarity the job that science fiction was always meant to do: walking the readers through the 'garden of forking paths' and assuring us that life can flourish, despite all challenges and crises, if we only deploy our imaginations."
—Paul Di Filippo, Washington PostGideon Lichfield is Editor-in-Chief of MIT Technology Review.