This is such a powerful story of dealing with dread and keeping with hope. What made you write this story?

At the beginning of the pandemic, I found myself writing a lot of stories that focused on the theme of sacrifice. In speculative media, particularly, there are a lot of stories that portray martyrdom or sacrifice as a noble or necessary cause, and I wanted to add to the roster of stories that rejects this idea. It look a fair amount of time to write this story, because I was trying to think about the best way to get across what I was trying to do in my head, but it all came together after multiple revisions.

Are the Giant and the Fox, if seen as symbols and metaphors, diametrically opposed or they are two sides of the same coin?

I didn’t intend for them to be symbols or metaphors, but I can see that interpretation. I think I’d love to leave that up to the reader.

Running is such an important part of the story. What is your relationship to running—the activity or the word?

I used to run a lot when I was in university—not so much now; but I do find myself drawn to the idea of running as a metaphor. As humans, there’s always something we run away from, but we often forget that every run comes to an end. I think that concept is a fertile exploration ground for a lot of thematic work, so I love to utilize it in things that I write.

How important or not is representation of rage and resistance in a story?

I would say it depends on the story, to be honest. I think stories that are attempting to subvert the status quo do need to adopt some kind of resistance to the tropes that they are interrogating, but I think there are a lot of different ways to portray this resistance, and rage is one of them, but it’s not necessarily the only way.

Are there any projects you are working on currently? And if not are there any themes, objects, or news that is keeping you awake?

I am working on a novel! I don’t want to give away the themes, but it definitely does keep me awake. I just finished working on a story collection as well, but I do still find myself tinkering with one or two new stories here and there.