Anna Black

“So far the response around here has merely been to cry foul, either in the name of a materialistic secularism or in the name of a dogmatic political ideology, both perverted by excessive devotion to narrow self-interest and fear of the moral burdens of uncertainty. This is the reason why we need action guided by the best knowledge we can find but also by the highest principles of accountability to the gift of life. Science alone can't seem to make moral sense of our own nothingness, which is one reason why it is time to begin naming again, morally chastened by an appreciation of what our cartographic imagination has failed to understand.”
― George B. Handley, Home Waters: A Year of Recompenses on the Provo River

“They could cast us in a movie together. Florence Pugh will play me. That girl from Crazy Rich Asians will play Athena.”
― R.F. Kuang

“It had become clear over three days that Ashley had the least survival experience of all of them. She had poor instincts with fire, putting damp wood on dark coals, blocking the flow of air by accident. She said most of her outdoors experience was car camping. Mara liked that she didn't pretend otherwise. She respected Ashley as much for that as she would for expertise. It struck her as brave both to come here without training and to admit it.”
― Blair Braverman

“One day Mara found a snakeskin in the grass. It was a whole skin, almost three feet long, and tied in a loose knot. As if the snake had curled through itself to shed. She thought about showing it off, but the snakeskin felt like hers alone, a secret, and she snuck it into one of the earth bags, nestled between one layer of dirt and the next. A talisman; her own contribution to the build.”
― Blair Braverman, Small Game