Speculative fiction (which for me encompasses everything from hard sf to vampire stories to magical realism) has been important to me. It's important to the world. These stories make us think. They critique society. They offer alternatives. They give us a vision of the future—and warn us of the potential dangers therein. They help us understand our past. They are full of beauty, and terror, and delight.

Forty-eight cases. Currently available public ward beds: twenty. Health care was a constitutional right. Universal health care, government-subsidized medical treatment, was available to all. Within limits.

I have a giant flea for a pet. / It has little dogs running around on it.

"I was born in Jamaica, lived in Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyana and the U.S., then moved to Canada in 1977 when I was sixteen . . . I guess I have a sense of many places, not of one. It's given me a sense that all places are unique, so when I write, I try to convey a strong sense of the location in which my story is set."

The Strange Horizons Gallery Presents: The Wildlife and Fantasy Art of Rebecca Kemp