Imagining Worlds—and Seeing Them Come True

Join Future Tense for a discussion with two best-selling authors on the role of speculative fiction in the real world.

2020 seems determined to prove the old adage of truth being stranger than fiction, but the fact is that speculative literature and reality have a way of inspiring, and presaging, each other. Before this year gets any stranger, we want to check in with two authors whose work has been lauded both for providing escapist fun and for raising prescient flags about emerging and future trends in real life. How does this play out? What are the roles and responsibilities of an author? What issues have their work surfaced over the turmoil of the last few months? What do builders of speculative worlds see for the future?

Engage in the conversation online by using #ImaginingWorlds and by following @FutureTenseNow.

Participants:

Veronica Roth
Author, Divergent series (Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant, and Four: A Divergent Collection), the Carve the Mark duology (Carve the Mark, the Fates Divide), The End and Other Beginnings, and Chosen Ones (#ChosenOnes)

Peter Warren Singer
Strategist and Senior Fellow, New America
Co-author, Burn-In: A Novel of the Real Robotic Revolution (#BurnInBook)

Moderator:

June Thomas
Senior Managing Producer, Slate podcasts