Djibril al-Ayad's Blog: The Future Fire book blog

Please welcome Toeken, long-time collaborator and artist of “The Sons of Victor Levitak”  and “Unblooded Gospel” in The Future Fire #74, for this week’s installment of our microinterview series.

Art © 2025 Toeken

TFF: What was the image that really stuck with you from “The Sons of Victor Levitak”?

Toeken: This is kind of funny in a way; after reading and re-reading Rowley Amato’s superb tale I started getting visuals involving what I can only describe as a disgruntled bowl of stew. At one point I ...

Lauren Ferebee, author of “Sentinel” in The Future Fire #74, joins us for a chat about omens, preservation and evolution in the latest instance of our microinterview feature.

Art © 2025 Barbara Candiotti
TFF: What does “Sentinel” mean to you?

Lauren Ferebee: “Sentinel” was an interesting story to write because it took me a long time to get from the beginning to the end of the story—a few years. I found the process of writing it very meditative because I enjoyed spending time with the narrator in...

We’re very happy to introduce V. Zixin, author of “The Better Ends” in The Future Fire #74, who joins us for this week’s microinterview.

Art © 2025 Carmen Moran

TFF: What does “The Better Ends” mean to you?

V. Zixin: “The Better Ends” was born out of my love for America. I grew up here as an immigrant. It’s a story so common as to be archetypal to the national identity of the United States. Certain promises are made in pursuit of that identity. One is that you will be just like anyone else. Anoth...

Nancy S. Koven, author of “Seven Stories for Now and Later” in The Future Fire #74, joins us for a quick chat about extinction, fetishization and writing in this week’s microinterview.

Art by John Gould and H.C. Richter (1854)TFF: What does “Seven Stories for Now and Later” mean to you?

Nancy S. Koven: By organizing the story around seven animals that are either recently or soon-to-be extinct, this story frames environmental loss as a deeply personal one, underscoring the human desire to “know” ...

This week we welcome Justin Taroli, author of “Unblooded Gospel” in The Future Fire #74, for a super brief chat about his story, dreams and writing.

Art © 2025 Toeken

TFF: What does “Unblooded Gospel” mean to you?

Justin Taroli: “Unblooded Gospel” is a story that's been lingering in my brain for over a decade. I think I was waiting for permission to write it. I gave myself that permission earlier this year.

TFF: Have you ever used your dreams as inspiration for your writing or art?

JT: Yes. My drea...

We’re delighted to be joined by Eleanor Glewwe, author of “Limue’s Alphabet” in The Future Fire #74, for a quick chat about alphabets and languages, in this week’s installment of our micro-interview series.

Art © Barbara Candiotti
TFF: What does “Limue's Alphabet” mean to you?

Eleanor Glewwe: I was inspired to write this story when an author I followed on Twitter—I wish I could remember who—urged writers to “go weird.” I don't remember where the idea for the plot came from, but “Limue’s Alphabet”...

Rowley Amato, author of “The Sons of Victor Levitak” in The Future Fire #74, joins us to talk about his story and other speculative matters in our micro-interview series.

Art © 2025, Toeken

TFF: What does “The Sons of Victor Levitak” mean to you?

Rowley Amato: “The Sons of Victor Levitak” is a wistful look back at a time when the American Jewish Left was muscular, organized, and unapologetically radical. I am a proud Jew, and with global fascism on the march and genocide being committed in our name...

We’re joined by Naomi Simone Borwein, author of the wonderful poem “The Void Is in a Playful Mood Tonight” in The Future Fire #74, to talk about alienation, transmaterality, and writing.

Art © 2025, Carmen Moran

TFF: What does “The Void Is in a Playful Mood Tonight” mean to you?

Naomi Simone Borwein: On one level, this poem is about the conscious universe and “our” presence in it. On another level, it is about alienation.

TFF: Is poetry a speculative genre or medium by default, would you say?

N...

“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art—the art of words.”

—Ursula K. Le Guin (National Book Awards, 2014) Issue 2025.74 Short stories ‘The Sons of Victor Levitak’, Rowley Amato - art by Toe...

“Progress has to do with all mankind, not alone with the calm, the wise, and the patient. There is youth in the world, and youth is generally neither calm nor patient; it does not like to sit in the rear rows and listen to mature considerations rendered in the tone of a stock-market quotation concerning questions that are burning up its heart, itself silent; if it did, it might learn to be wise and calm,—and also ashy and inert. There is feeling in the world, and a very great quantity of...