As they say, we have been cursed to live in interesting times. It’s a full-time job just keeping up with the major headlines of each day. And like the pirates say, there be good days and there be bad days. Every day brings lots of wonderful new developments, but the specter of an extinction level event seems to lurk just around the corner.

At times like these, we desperately need great writing to help us make sense of the world. And while we  owe a debt of gratitude to journalists and essayists who grapple with the here and now in a direct way, I’d like to make a special plea to the fiction writers among us to keep honing their craft and turning out thoughtful, creative work to guide us through the days ahead. It’s the fiction writers who are constantly asking the “what if” questions and proposing new answers and new ways of thinking about the world. With the help of their creativity, we can find ideas for our own paths through the daily chaos of life.