Shariann Lewitt, author and writing professor at MIT, will be interviewing Andrea Kriz about her debut science fiction collection "Learning to Hate Yourself as a Self-Defense Mechanism"

After introductions there will be excerpted readings, and a conversation about AI, the interactions between science and science fiction, cultural appropriation, and other themes from the collection.

A Q&A session with the audience to follow, and book signings to wrap up the evening. Reserve your ticket in advance to save a copy of the book for signing!

A short story collection exploring unexpected, fantastical futures and how we cope in them.

Your friend creates an award-winning VR game-based on your friendship. An AI starts a YouTube channel at the expense of its creator. A fanfic writer plagiarizing the lives of the marginalized gets her comeuppance. Time travel meets magic in a world blown into pieces by war. Dragons modify DNA and undergo peer review. In Andrea Kriz's debut short story collection, technology and genres wildly blend in stories that will challenge how you see our future.

Stories include "Learning to Hate Yourself as a Self-Defense Mechanism," "Communist Computer Rap God," "There Are No Hot Topics on Whukai," "Miss DELETE Myself," "AIs Who Make Ais Make the Best Ais!" "The Ones Who Got Away from Time and Loss," "Rebuttal to Reviewer's Comments on Edits for "Demonstration of a Novel Draconification Protocol in a Human Subject"," "I Want to Dream of a Brief Future," "And That's Why I Gave Up on Magic," "Resistance in a Drop of DNA," "The Last Caricature of Jean Moulin," and "The Leviathan and the Fury."

Rules for attending:

• A copy of the book is included with your purchase of a ticket! Get it signed at the event by the author herself!
• Advance online RSVP preferred Anyone not registered in an ongoing event will only be allowed in the event space if within capacity limits.
• $5 'RSVP' ticket is a deposit, and can be reimbursed at the event as store credit!
• No food will be allowed in our event space for the time being. Drinking is allowed.
• Proof of COVID vaccination may be requested. Either the presentation of the physical card or a clear picture will suffice. Pandemonium does not keep any records, written or otherwise, of vaccination status.

About the Author:

Andrea Kriz is a local author and does research at Harvard as a molecular biologist. In addition to this collection, many of her short fiction have been published in Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, and Asimov's Science Fiction, among others. She is also part of the Dartmouth Speculative Fiction Project, a collaboration between authors and Dartmouth faculty to create short stories exploring the future of humanity.