Don't Worry, This Author's Got Our Dystopia All Figured Out

About a decade ago, the author Alexander Weinstein suffered an unexpectedly affecting loss: His computer died, taking with it years of his creative work. "I was deeply upset," says the 39-year-old writer and instructor. "Around the same time, a lot of my students were getting iPhones, and talking about how much they loved them--saying that, if they lost anything, please don't let it be their iPhones. I got the sense that we were all starting to forge this very deep emotional connection with technology." Weinstein's response came in the form of a short story, "Saying Goodbye to Yang," which is now the first entry in his future-shocked, surprisingly moving, thoroughly excellent new speculative-fiction collection, Children of the New World.