Take Us to a Better Place: Stories

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When a popular high school football player dies from a mystery illness, Glory, a reporter for a large online media conglomerate, is determined to get to the bottom of what happened before it spreads any further. But she finds herself up against the local sports culture and the conflicting goals of her employer.

Author: Madeline Ashby

Paradise

Rita is a Syrian refugee whose family has escaped the conflict to Arizona—but not without a cost. Her mother was killed back home, and her father and brother carry bullet wounds. Facing xenophobia and racism at school and work, Rita and her brother struggle every day in the face of systems and individuals who fail to support refugees and immigrants.

Author: Hannah Lillith Assadi

Brief Exercises in Mindfulness

Harry and Dean are just starting their adult lives in New York. An encounter with Raquin, who was forcibly evicted from the apartment they now rent, illuminates the trauma of gentrification and the struggle to be heard and understood in today's world.

Author: Calvin Baker

The Masculine and the Dead

Having lost his wife to disease, ex-marine Guy, a rugged samaritan in his small-town community, struggles to reconnect with his only child. It's not until he steps in to care for the neglected son of an opioid-addicted man that he learns emotional responsibility and the skills to rebuild his severed ties.

Author: Frank Bill

The Erasure Game

In a future society, two teens find out what happens when seemingly innocuous "community games" serve a more sinister purpose. It turns out that these popular means of social interaction are quietly eroding civil liberties and privacy as neighbors collect data on one another and report it to shadowy rulers and a power hungry elite.

Author: Yoon Ha Lee

The Plague Doctors

In 2079, a mysterious illness called grey pox is killing large portions of the population. When the illness finally reached the remote Pelican Island, a team of researchers including Audra Lee—whose own young niece has been affected—must muster all of their meager resources to help find a cure.

Author: Karen Lord

The Flotilla at Bird Island

Kyle and Bobby, long-lost lovers from different backgrounds, live in a United States where encroaching coastlines are wreaking havoc on health and well-being. When they reconnect, the disparities and inequities between their two worlds: a South ravaged by global warming and  an eco-protected island in North Carolina are thrown into harsh juxtaposition.

Author: Mike McClelland

The Sweet Spot

Isa, a woman with progressive hearing loss, is separating from her wife. It's not her decision. There's lots wrong in the marriage but also lots right, and she has developed a number of dependencies--many, in fact--around her hearing loss. As the marriage falls apart, Isa has to reconfigure who she is and how she finds support.

Author: Achy Obejas

Reclamation

Daniel Goodroad, an American Indian teenager, is losing hope. Just as he's about to give up, he encounters a horse. Forming a natural bond, the two meet up with a Native elder, who helps Daniel reconnect with his culture. Equipped with the tools to raise himself up in order to reclaim both culture and community, Daniel—now an elder—demonstrates the power of recollection, reclamation, and preservation.

Author: David A. Robertson

Obsolescence

On a space station near Jupiter, station manager Jixy discovers one of her friends, Greggy, an "augmented human," has been brutally murdered. A semi-mythical figure called Piecework has been blamed for similar attacks on other stations. Determined to protect the people on herstation, Jixy sets out to see if Piecework—or someone else—is responsible for the crime.

Author: Martha Wells