Size / / /

Do not pet the dinosaurs,

Or try to feed them popcorn.

They're used to ferns and ginkgos, not

Gelatinized angiosperms.

If baby theropods warble,

It means they like your yellow dress.

Keep your arms inside at all times.

This is not a diorama.

Should that ankylosaur charge,

Poof—automatically we'll

Jump a few million years ahead

To catch the earliest birds.

Let's camp on that hill tonight,

Under younger stars. Instead

Of Orion, which won't gel till

Next eon, we'll look for Bronto.

I'll go slow, to give you a chance

For some majestic pictures. But

Where or when was that turn to see

The nesting pterodactyl pair?

Oh, forgive me. I'm distracted.

It's all because of my husband.

Fifty-six tours ago, he left

The trail to chase a dragonfly

As big as our cat. "Wonderful!"

He shouted, and disappeared

Through a strand of fiddlehead ferns.

I have not seen him since.




Ken Liu is an author of speculative fiction, as well as a translator, lawyer, and programmer. A winner of the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy awards, he is the author of The Dandelion Dynasty, a silkpunk epic fantasy series (The Grace of Kings (2015), The Wall of Storms (2016), and a forthcoming third volume) and The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories (2016), a collection. In addition to his original fiction, Ken also translated numerous works from Chinese to English, including The Three-Body Problem (2014), by Liu Cixin, and “Folding Beijing,” by Hao Jingfang, both Hugo winners.
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25 Sep 2023

People who live in glass houses are surrounded by dirt birds
After a century, the first colony / of bluebirds flew out of my mouth.
Over and over the virulent water / beat my flame down to ash
In this episode of  Critical Friends , the Strange Horizons SFF criticism podcast, Aisha and Dan talk to critic and poet Catherine Rockwood about how reviewing and criticism feed into creative practice. Also, pirates.
Writing authentic stories may require you to make the same sacrifice. This is not a question of whether or not you are ready to write indigenous literature, but whether you are willing to do so. Whatever your decision, continue to be kind to indigenous writers. Do not ask us why we are not famous or complain about why we are not getting support for our work. There can only be one answer to that: people are too busy to care. At least you care, and that should be enough to keep my culture alive.
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