Count on the Surprises
Fall Incubator applications open + the Anthology arrives!
Dear Humans,
I’ve been thinking a lot about Octavia Butler in the last year. If you’ve read her scarily prescient Parable of the Sower, you know why (but also thanks in part to conversations with a dream cohort of writers in residence at Hedgebrook last summer). In 2000, Butler wrote an essay for Essence magazine called “A Few Rules for Predicting the Future.” In it, she offers a case for fiction writing and imaginative problem-solving, urging us to pay attention, to consider how the problems of today might (d)evolve if left unchecked. Her rules:
Learn from the past.
Respect the law of consequences.
Be aware of your perspective.
But Butler also cautions us not to give over to fear, depression, superstition, or straight-line thinking. (“In the future, we will have more and more of whatever we have now,” for example.) There’s no straight line through history. There’s no poll or peer-reviewed study that can predict the outcome of 8 billion humans behaving like the animals we are, all at once.
Count on the surprises, she urges us, in the end.
This is the rule I’m repeating to myself, in writing and in life: stay open to the possibility that people can surprise you. That surprise is, in fact, inevitable. And that writing, making art, and harnessing your imagination—even when fear, depression, superstition, disasters, and antagonists loom—contributes to the collective vision. Contributes to the surprise.
A few surprises have happened since I last posted (a year ago!). To narrow it down, I’ll stick to my current top three from the writing realm, and resolve to check in again before 2026:
1) My flash essay collection GIRL/THING (named for the title essay, from Brevity magazine) was recently selected as a finalist for the Harvard Review Chapbook Prize. Very grateful to be considered among this talented lineup!
2) Applications for the Fall 2025 Incubator are open. Four years ago, my writing partner Colleen Kinder and I decided to toss out the playbook on writing—specifically the chapter that says that writing a book is a solitary, toiling-alone-in-a-room-with-your-muses-and-demons affair. Together, we created the Incubator of our dreams: a virtual six-week program of intensive support and accountability designed to catalyze radical progress and reignite joy. Sharing it with fellow writers has been one of the most gratifying, connecting, dynamic experiences of my life. I could go on, but I’ll let the reviews from our über-talented alumni speak for themselves:
I’m blushing! Apply here by July 1, and please do share this with anyone who might benefit from our program.
*Time to plug a few fantastic 2025 books by Incubator alumni and guest authors! Transplants, a novel by Daniel-Tam Claiborne; No Fault, a memoir/history of divorce, by Haley Mlotek, and Blazing Eye Sees All: Love Has Won, False Prophets, and The Fever Dream of American New Age, by journalist and podcaster Leah Sottile.
3) Last but not least….the ANTHOLOGY is here! In 2023, I was hired by All Classical Radio in Portland, Oregon, to take on an absolute dream of an editorial project: curate a collection of 40 original profile essays about Pacific Northwest artists, penned by Pacific Northwest writers, and collect them in a gorgeous coffee table book replete with stunning images from Pacific Northwest photographers. The result arrived on my doorstep this week, a royal blue STUNNER—a wonder of a book!
Major gratitude to my wing woman/project manager Rebecca Richardson, to the All Classical crew, and to all the talented artists, writers, photographers, and friends (listed below) who made this true communal effort come to vivid life. You can order a copy here, or find it in stock at Elliott Bay Books in Seattle.
XO,
Anna
P.S. On the theme of surprises: as I was typing this missive, I received an email that I’ve earned a grant for a future book project. More on that in the next edition…!
FEATURED ARTISTS
Intisar Abioto ✹ Midnight Abioto ✹ Andy Akiho ✹ Rose Bond ✹ Kenji Bunch ✹ Romson Bustillo ✹ Joe Cantrell ✹ Alex Chiu ✹ Jeremy Okai Davis ✹ China Forbes ✹ Subashini Ganesan ✹ Darrell Grant ✹ Jimmie Herrod ✹ Mary Hinckley ✹ Ben Jacobsen ✹ Malia Jensen ✹ Thomas Lauderdale ✹ Latoya Lovely ✹ Corinna Luyken ✹ Myriam Marcela ✹ Anis Mojgani ✹ Hunter Noack ✹ Jean Pierre Nugloze ✹ John Paul ✹ Josh Pfriem ✹ Lillian Pitt ✹ Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe ✹ Sankar Raman ✹ Pat Reser ✹ Gabriel Rucker ✹ Hana Rucker ✹ David Saffert ✹ Vin Shambry ✹ Caroline Shaw ✹ Gabriella Smith ✹ Kim Stafford ✹ April Surgent ✹ Barbara Earl Thomas ✹ Edna Vazquez ✹ Anthony White ✹ Takeshi Yonezawa ✹ Bora Yoon
PHOTOGRAPHY BY
Joe Cantrell ✹ Laura Dart ✹ Christine Dong ✹ Iris Hu ✹ Arthur Hitchcock ✹ So-Min Kang ✹ Jim Lommasson ✹ Jason Quigley ✹ Jess Smith ✹ Daniel Stark ✹ Alyssa Teuton ✹ Frankie Tresser ✹ Andrew Wallner ✹ Katy Weaver
ESSAYS BY
Brian Benson ✹ Erica Berry ✹ Brett Campbell ✹ Joyce Chen ✹ Amber Flame ✹ Kate Gray ✹ Marcus Harrison Green ✹ Emma Marris ✹ Kristen Millares-Young ✹ Daniela Naomi Molnar ✹ Mamie Stevenson Morago ✹ Sasha LaPointe ✹ Anne Liu Kellor ✹ Jennifer Perrine ✹ Bruce Poinsette ✹ Putsata Reang ✹ Daniel Tam-Claiborne ✹ Gabriel Urza ✹ Anna Vodicka ✹ Joe Wilkins