{"title":"Debbie Urbanski","description":"Debbie Urbanski is the author of the novel After World. Her stories and essays have been published widely in such places as The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, Best American Experimental Writing, The Sun, Granta, Orion, and Junior Great Books. A recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award, she can often be found hiking with her family in the hills south of Syracuse, New York. She is still looking for her portal.","products":[{"product_id":"portalmania-stories-paperback","title":"Portalmania: Stories - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIf you could go anywhere, where would you go? And what happens to the people you leave behind?\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFrom the author of \u003ci\u003eAfter World\u003c\/i\u003e comes a genre-busting collection of stories that reveal our lives in a startling new light, perfect for fans of Kelly Link and Carmen Maria Machado \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In \u003ci\u003ePortalmania\u003c\/i\u003e, Debbie Urbanski wields sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and realism to build a dark mirror that she holds up to the ordinary world. Within the sharply imagined landscape of this collection, portals appear in linen closets, planetary gateways materialize in boarding schools, monsters wait in bathroom vents, and transformations of women's bodies are an everyday occurrence. Political division causes physical rifts that break apart the Earth's crust. A son on another planet sends dispatches home to the mother who failed him, and a wife turns to the supernatural to escape her abusive marriage. Portals are not only doorways found in children's classics, but separations, escapes, dead ends, desertions, and choices that will change these characters' lives forever. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Against a fantastical backdrop, these stories dive bravely into the shadowy depths of betrayal, parenthood, revenge, murder, coercive sex, open marriages, asexuality, neurodiversity, and second chances. What if we're not the ideal parents for our children? What if we're not the ideal person to live our own life? \u003ci\u003ePortalmania\u003c\/i\u003e questions why we love as we do and asks if we have enough courage to reimagine desire.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50103194812639,"sku":"9781668061114","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/5CHZ_gXXwP9781668061114.webp?v=1781090468"},{"product_id":"after-world-paperback","title":"After World - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOne of \u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e's Top 10 SF\/Fantasy and Horror Debuts: 2024\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eOne of \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e's Best Tech Books of 2023\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eOne of \u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e's Favorite Books of 2023\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eA Climate Reality Project Book Club Pick\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn \"intelligent, defiant\" (\u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e) debut that follows an Artificial Intelligence tasked with writing a novel--only for it to fall in love with the novel's subject, Sen, the last human on Earth.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFaced with the uncontrolled and accelerating environmental collapse, humanity asks an artificial intelligence to find a solution. Its answer is simple: remove humans from the ecosystem. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSen Anon is assigned to be a witness for the Department of Transition, recording the changes in the environment as the world begins to rewild. Abandoned by her mother in a cabin somewhere in upstate New York, Sen will observe the monumental ecological shift known as the Great Transition, the final step in Project Afterworld. Around her drones buzz, cameras watch, microphones listen, digitizing her every move. Privately she keeps a journal of her observations, which are then uploaded and saved, joining the rest of humanity on Maia, a new virtual home. Sen was seventeen years old when the Digital Human Archive Project (DHAP) was initiated. 12,000,203,891 humans have been archived so far. Only Sen remains. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e[storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc's assignment is to capture Sen's life, and they set about doing this using the novels of the 21st century as a roadmap. As Sen struggles to persist in the face of impending death, [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc works to unfurl the tale of Sen's whole life, offering up an increasingly intimate narrative until they are confronted with a very human problem of their own. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ci\u003eAfter World\u003c\/i\u003e is a \"riveting, creepy...dazzling,\" (Kimberly King Parsons, award-winning author of \u003ci\u003eBlack Light\u003c\/i\u003e) novel about what it means to be human in a world upended by AI and the bonds we forge with technology.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50104263180511,"sku":"9781668023464","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/D8iHuR4iu-9781668023464.webp?v=1781104526"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/debbie-urbanski.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}