It’s been a while since my last one of these announcements. Part of that is because I decided to take a break from submitting stories while I was in grad school, so I could focus entirely on being a student of writing. But grad school is well behind me now, and I’ve begun tentatively sending out my work again. Just as I was back in 2009, I’ve been fortunate to find an appreciative reader in Asimov’s editor Sheila Williams.
“The New Mother” was the heart of my masters thesis. It’s a novella about reproductive rights and motherhood in an alternate present where the spread of a new infectious condition throws established notions about them into question. I spent more time on it than on any other piece of fiction I’ve yet written, taking it through revision after revision as I learned new things at Iowa. It’s been in my head and on my hard drive, in one form or another, for three years now. I’m thrilled that people are finally going to get to read it.