Emma

“It was raining again—this unrelenting rain. Without even trying, Malena heard the roaring of the growing river beneath the deafening song of the raindrops, frogs, crickets, and birds of the night. Above the trees, a bat swooped down time after time, tasting the still ripening nísperos in the trees. The medlar fruit was an immigrant like Malena's family, its ancestor brought as a seed in a ship all the way from China, and now it covered the fields as if it had been here since the beginning of the world.”
― Yamile Saied Méndez, Reclaim the Stars: 17 Tales Across Realms & Space

“How do you mourn someone who's not dead yet?”
― Daniel José Older, Reclaim the Stars: 17 Tales Across Realms & Space

“A flaw of humanity,” said Parisa, shrugging. “The compulsion to be unique, which is at war with the desire to belong to a single identifiable sameness.”
― Olivie Blake, The Atlas Six

“This continued for many weeks. Sometimes, la sirena would join Suma in her singing, and together, their voices would bring dreams of the sea to the people of the plantation.
It was in these moments that Suma could taste freedom. It was then that she began to know love.”
― Vita Ayala, Reclaim the Stars: 17 Tales Across Realms & Space