How did “Queen of the Andes” originate? What inspirations did you draw on?

With this story, I really wanted to tell a story about humanity’s relationship with plants, which have become/are becoming more and more important to me. Climate change and habitat destruction in the forms of logging, development, pollution, etc. are killing off entire species. Our planet is now in the process of being remade by the climate catastrophe. But what happens after the apocalypse comes and some people, some plants, go on living? Does conservation stop? No, I don’t think so. My story follows a Bolivian climate refugee helping her abuela save the last known member of a rare species of bromeliad that only grows in the Andes and prevent the whole species from going extinct. It’s about our responsibility to plants. The ethics of taking those plants off-world. What it means to be a climate refugee. How to carry my Bolivian heritage into the future.

What is your writing process like? Did “Queen of the Andes” fit the pattern?

My writing process is accretive; it gathers disparate elements and influences around a core idea (in this case, the image of the Queen of the Andes (Puya raimondii), a real species native to the Andes), then gradually the story emerges through the collection and compression of other stuff around that core. This story definitely followed that pattern, though the timeline from finding a core image to building a story around it was much faster than usual. It took only a couple weeks, whereas I often sit on ideas for months or years before I even start writing.

What are you reading lately? What writers inspire you?

I’m in the midst of consuming everything Becky Chambers and Nino Cipri have written. I just finished Paul Hlava Ceballos’ poetry collection [banana], which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and delves into the violence and corporate malfeasance that makes a banana so cheap, and Jasmine Sawers’ flash fiction collection The Anchored World, which was a finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection and draws from fairy tales and folklore of varying traditions. Next, I’m planning to dive into the new books from Malka Older and Kelly Link.

Other than writing, do you have any other creative pursuits? What do you do to relax?

I’m going to be pretty liberal with the definition of creative pursuit here and include a lot of things that don’t necessarily produce anything. Birding, for instance, though I’ve also taken up some amateur wildlife photography to help document my birding. Baking, my most delicious pursuit. Soapmaking. Canning homemade jam (also delicious). Keeping my houseplants alive. Propagating a million baby jades.

What are you working on lately? Where else can fans look for your work?

I’m always working on a story collection or three. I’ve been published in more than fifty journals at this point, which boggles my mind! Fans of flash can check out my “A Girl” series, including stories in Nightmare and Nature: Futures. This story in Lightspeed is the title story of one of my works in progress, and you can find other stories from that collection in Reckoning, khōréō, and the anthology Unfettered Hexes.