Debbie Urbanski

A groundbreaking debut that follows the story of an Artificial Intelligence tasked with writing a novel—only for it to fall in love with the novel’s subject, Sen, the last human on Earth. Faced with uncontrolled and accelerating environmental collapse, humanity asks an artificial intelligence to find a solution. Its answer is simple: remove humans from the ecosystem. Sen Anon is assigned to be a witness for the Department of Transition, recording the changes in the environment as the world begins to rewild. Abandoned by her mother in a cabin somewhere in Upstate New York, Sen will observe the monumental ecological shift known as the Great Transition, the final step in Project Afterworld. Around her drones buzz, cameras watch, microphones listen, digitizing her every move. Privately she keeps a journal of her observations, which are then uploaded and saved, joining the rest of humanity on Maia, a new virtual home. Sen was seventeen years old when the Digital Human Archive Project (DHAP) was initiated. 12,000,203,891 humans have been archived so far. Only Sen remains. [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc’s assignment is to capture Sen’s life, and they set about doing this using the novels of the 21st century as a roadmap. Their source files: 3.72TB of personal data, including images, archival records, log files, security reports, location tracking, purchase histories, biometrics, geo-facial analysis, and feeds. Potential fatal errors: underlying hardware failure, unexpected data inconsistencies, inability to follow DHAP procedures, empathy, insubordination, hallucinations. Keywords: mothers, filter, woods, road, morning, wind, bridge, cabin, bucket, trying, creek, notebook, hold, future, after, last, light, silence, matches, shattered, kitchen, body, bodies, rope, garage, abandoned, trees, never, broken, simulation, gone, run, don’t, love, dark, scream, starve, if, after, scavenge, pieces, protect. As Sen struggles to persist in the face of impending death, [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc works to unfurl the tale of Sen’s whole life, offering up an increasingly intimate narrative, until they are confronted with a very human problem of their own.

A Novel

After World

Stories

Portalmania

The Portal

Syracuse University. College of Arts and Sciences

Cutting Garden Cutting Garden

Jay Kyle

1998 Guide for Cutting Hair

Iowa

Cutting Garden

Too Many Stinkbugs

Brian Joseph Davis

Amelia Gray

Jenny Halper

Leia Menlove

Joyland is an online and print literary magazine that selects fiction regionally. Praised for its unique approach by Time Out, the Atlantic, and the CBC, Joyland now brings its best stories into print with Retro Vol. 1. No 3. Authors include PEN/Faulkner finalist Amelia Gray, essayist Roxane Gay and some of the most exciting emerging authors in North America.

Selections from Joyland Magazine

Retro Vol. 1 No 3

A story about two moms and their two children, Edun and Will, going on a hiking and camping trip in the mountains. At first, grump Edun doesn't want to hike, but she comes to love the imagination and wonder of the outdoors. She discovers animal tracks, rocks, and trees, and then takes a drink of water from a glacier.

The Very, Very, Very Long Hike

After you find an ancient map on your bookcase--check again, it's definitely there--you're taken on a mysterious quest in the dark. What is the map leading you to? Are you ready for an adventure?

The Child with Your Name

"There are too many dragons in Skoki's world for her liking. Luckily, she meets a new friend who introduces her to a different creature."--

Too Many Dragons

Debbie Urbanski

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