Monica Byrne, author of “Parasocial,” shares what inspired her September Future Tense Fiction story about what goes wrong when a celebrity decides to license his image to a hologram start-up in an interview with editor Mia Armstrong.
More Future Tense Fiction
What Are We Going to Do With More Than 200 Million Climate Refugees?
Imagining Transportation Futures
The federal government has to simultaneously deal with the prosaic present and imagine a desired future, and nowhere is this truer than at the Department of Transportation. The DOT is not only called upon to fix aging infrastructure and manage highway spending, but also make long-term strategic decisions and investments affecting how Americans and their […]
Empathy Hour
This story was originally published in Slate in March 2022. Read the response essay by climate migration researchers Tim Robustelli and Yuliya Panfil. Author’s note: It’s only been two years since I wrote “Empathy Hour,” but it seems obvious to me that the two issues at its heart—deepfaked video and human suffering fueled by climate […]
Parasocial
Jim was three whiskeys in when someone plunked down a red leather handbag. He looked up, shielding his eyes from the afternoon sunlight. “I thought I’d find you here,” said a warm and officious voice. Jim blinked, focused on the face of Molly Moore in a peach silk pantsuit. He’d noticed it at the audition. […]