Andrea Kriz was born in Chicago and grew up in Michigan. Her parents as well as three of her grandparents all earned PhDs: “Growing up, I thought that getting a PhD and dedicating your life to research was normal . . . ” Kriz earned her B.S. in Biology at MIT and a PhD in Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Harvard. Her studies included a concentration in linguistics at MIT as part of the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences requirement.

Kriz has garnered a number of accolades beyond genre circles. In 2015 she received the MIT undergraduate Ilona Karmel Prize (now called the King Prize) for Writing Science Fiction. She also received the AMITA (Association of MIT Alumnae) 2015 Senior Academic Award. As a PhD student she landed fellowships from various organizations, such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH); then later, the Jane Coffin Childs fellowship, as a postdoctoral researcher.

Andrea Kriz hit the SFF short fiction scene with “Chrysalis” as her first publication, which came out at Nature in February of 2016. She continued to publish steadily, often with several stories appearing in a year across a range of venues. Examples include more appearances in Nature; “Waiting for Superman” in Daily Science Fiction in 2017; “Pearleater’s Promise” in Cossmass Infinities in 2020; and her first of several appearances in Clarkesworld, “Communist Computer Rap God” in 2021. She has also had fiction appear at Lightspeed, Asimov’s, Diabolical Plots, Fireside, and more. Her French resistance alternate history story, “The Leviathan and the Fury” (originally published in Asimov’s) was translated into French and published in Galaxies SF in January 2023. “I had a wonderful experience working with a translator, Fred Gevart, who suggested edits to make the symbolism work better for French readers. They also ended up making the story stronger overall. I ended up incorporating these into the English version of the story which will be published in my collection.”

Besides her strong track record in genre fiction, Kriz has an impressive set of biological research publications. “Fun fact, I’ve been published in the journal Nature both as an author on a scientific article as well as a science fiction author.” She currently does postdoctoral research in brain genetics at Harvard Medical School.

Debut short story collection Learning to Hate Yourself as a Self-Defense Mechanism is due from Interstellar Flight Press this month.

What were the books or stories that were important to you when you were younger, and do you see them as literary influences, or are your influences very different?

Animorphs is the first science fiction series I remember really getting into, and also the first one I remember that really inspired me to speculate. (What would it be like to be controlled for decades by a Yeerk? Or to be permanently morphed into a hawk?) I read 2666 by Roberto Bolaño in high school (probably too young), and it completely changed my perception of what a novel can be. It was the first book I read where basically every facet of character motivation, and even the plot, is left up to reader interpretation. It was a brutal experience. Anime was also a huge influence on me when I was younger (and continues to be!). When I watched Neon Genesis Evangelion as a high schooler, I was so fascinated by the psychology of the Angels and how they try to communicate with humans—particularly how they communicate with Rei, who has a cloned human body but an Angel soul. Even after watching The End of Evangelion, I had so many questions that I was unable to find satisfying answers for, despite scouring the internet. The only recourse I had was to endlessly speculate. Eventually, when I started writing, I found myself using those same kinds of speculative muscles and striving to create work that would spur the same kinds of emotions in other people.

In the acknowledgements for Learning to Hate Yourself as a Self-Defense Mechanism, one of the people you thank is Shariann Lewitt, “for introducing me to the world of speculative short fiction . . . ” What has your writer’s journey been like? Were there times when you struggled, and what continues to bring you back?

I started seriously writing near the end of college, but for some reason it never occurred to me to write science fiction or fantasy (despite reading a lot of it). That all changed when I took a Fiction Workshop class with Shariann Lewitt in my senior year. Shariann introduced me to the world of speculative fiction magazines, some of which are sadly not around anymore—shout-outs to Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, Daily Science Fiction, Lightspeed, and of course Clarkesworld! These were the first venues I read regularly. I was in absolute awe at the sheer creativity and power portrayed in each story in so few words. The last piece fell into place when I was reading an issue of Nature and saw that they published science fiction! I vividly remember reading Bread of Life by Beth Cato and having my heart torn out by an entire story packed into a single page. Reading short fiction inspired me to write and led to my first publication in Nature Futures in 2016 (though I can’t condone the exorbitantly high paywalls they now unfortunately put on most of their stories).

Most of my stories were written while I was doing my PhD. In a way my PhD and writing complemented each other, as when my research wasn’t going well, I could turn to my writing and vice versa. It was also difficult though, because both academia and writing involve a lot of rejection. Starting in 2016, there were things going on in the world that increasingly impacted my life and prevented me from focusing on writing or doing science. I struggled with that many times. Then, of course, 2020 happened. I had just received (challenging) peer reviews back for my PhD paper when the world shut down. What kept me going was a feeling really aptly summarized by the song “Look at the Sky” by Porter Robinson. So many crazy things are happening in the world that I can’t say where I’ll be in even ten years. But I’m here now and I can make a promise to myself that I’ll be here next year. In that time, I can make something good.

There are a few pieces of media I keep coming back to when the writing journey gets tough. Porter Robinson’s album Nurture is one of the most accurate portrayals of the creative process I’ve experienced. It touches on struggles that I think will ring true for a lot of writers: the come-down after initial success, questioning yourself for not being content with success you’ve already had, feeling like you’ll never live up to your initial success, growing as an artist independently of expectations (yours and others’, real or perceived), and creating for the sake of creating. Something else I’ve found more recently is the manga Look Back by Tatsuki Fujimoto. The main character, Fujino, gives up on drawing manga after another student at her school draws “better” art than her. The panel where Fujino dances in the rain after learning that her perceived artistic rival was actually inspired by her manga is immensely powerful to me.

For you, what is special about or specific to science fiction?

I’m excited about science fiction as a means of science communication, particularly beyond “cautionary tale” stories. So many people are distrustful of science, especially the biological sciences, and sometimes that can be justified but I think a lot of the time it can be rooted in misunderstanding—not because people don’t want to understand science, but because they might not have the right resources accessible to them. Not everyone is going to be able to delve into a scientific paper, but a lot of people love engaging with fiction that speculates on where current research may take us in the future. Narratives about worst-case scenarios, lone geniuses, and mad scientists have their place but I love science fiction that goes beyond that and tries to portray science with all its nuances and ups and downs. A few short story examples I’m a big fan of: “Best-Laid Plans” by David D. Levine and all of Arula Ratnakar’s fiction. I also love how fantasy involving magical research and academia can delve into these topics, like Babel by R.F. Kuang.

I love encouraging researchers to engage with science fiction, whether that’s writing it, reading it, or even talking with fans. Thinking creatively and speculation are often essential for advancing science. However, research can also have long ruts that make it difficult to engage with that creativity—that’s why I think stepping out of the lab (at least occasionally!) is essential. I also love to encourage authors to reach out to researchers working in the fields they’re interested in writing about, in a respectful way—never underestimate how eager a scientist is to talk about their work!

As a scientist, is scientific plausibility important to your stories? Do you seek it out and expect it in the science fiction you enjoy?

I do have a compulsion to be as scientifically accurate as possible when I write about biology, which has perhaps hindered me from writing a lot of biological science fiction, haha. I don’t think a story has to be 100% scientifically accurate to be enjoyable, but one does need to avoid getting the basics wrong. For example, I really enjoyed “The Dragon Project” by Naomi Kritzer even without in-depth biological explanations of how all the dragons were being created. However, if a story pivots on bioengineering and a character inaccurately explains what DNA is, for example, then that will take me out of it.

Even before your first published story you won a prize for writing science fiction back in 2015. Looking at your body of work, including the collection at hand, are there themes, motifs, or ideas that you tend to come back to? Or are the concerns of each story very different from the next?

I think “unhealthy coping mechanisms” is a theme that runs through many of my stories (especially those featured in my collection—see the title). “The Ones Who Got Away from Time and Loss” features a series of researchers who travel back in time to steal their peers’ work rather than face a scientific world where they aren’t the first to make a discovery. In “Rebuttal to Reviewers’ comments . . . ” a scientist addresses negative peer reviews about her human-to-dragon transmutation study in a dramatically fiery way. Most of these stories were written when I was a PhD student, when I was becoming increasingly immersed in the academic world. I reflected a lot on what it means to be successful scientifically, and how the current system doesn’t always reward or even encourage sharing knowledge and doing good science. Despite that, there is still amazing science being done and people who persevere in trying to make the system better.

Many of my stories also feature creatives trying to cope in a perpetually online world that sees their art as “content” to be “consumed.” In “Communist Computer Rap God,” a YouTuber ends up becoming the scapegoat for the behavior of the titular AI he created (who also ends up becoming a more popular YouTuber than him). In “There Are No Hot Topics on Whukai,” a marginalized gamer is hired to help a fanfic author’s work appear more “authentic” to the online community. I think a lot of creatives are conditioned to put their personal lives online in the hopes of “going viral,” seeing this as the only way to “make it”—but going viral can often have extremely negative consequences. I know this hope of going viral versus its potential devastating consequences is something I’m still grappling with personally.

Learning to Hate Yourself as a Self-Defense Mechanism includes twelve stories—eleven reprints and one original. What was the process or organizational principle behind selecting stories and the order in which they appear in the book?

Most of the stories in the first part of the collection portray coping in an extremely negative way. In the titular story, which kicks off the collection, You are a game creator grappling with an accusation of racism from someone You saw as a very close friend, someone who turns out to have incorporated private moments of Your relationship into their own (award-winning) games. The title is self-explanatory. Self-hate appears in a lot of the subsequent stories as well.

I see the last three stories of the collection, however, as turning the page. “Resistance in a Drop of DNA,” “The Last Caricature of Jean Moulin,” and “The Leviathan and the Fury” are all alternative history stories about the French Resistance during World War II, one of the darkest periods of history. The characters in these three stories all go through similar traumatic losses, but finally we see them acknowledging their grief and flaws—and perhaps moving on?

In a way, it’s easy to end a story depressingly, when a character is at their lowest point completely due to their own doing. These days, however, I find myself wondering, what comes after? In real life, people don’t magically disappear after ruining their lives. I find myself trying more and more to write about what comes next.

What can you tell us about the original story, “And That’s Why I Gave Up on Magic,” without spoiling the read too much?

The story was inspired by the song “That’s Why I Gave Up on Music” by Yorushika and the anime Eighty-Six. The cover art of my collection was also inspired by the original story! Shout-outs to the cover artist, Dante Luiz, who is an amazing artist and person to work with! And special thanks to the editors and proofreaders at Interstellar Flight Press who helped make this story the best it can be 🙂

Are there one or two stories here which you are particularly excited for new readers to discover, and why?

I’m excited for readers to discover “And That’s Why I Gave Up on Magic,” as it’s the first time this story will be shared with the world. I’d also love to recommend “Rebuttal to Reviewers’ Comments . . . ” to researchers or anyone curious about what the peer review process is like for science (with the follow-up questions of, how did this go right and where did this go wrong?)

Which stories in the collection were most challenging to write? What made them challenging, and how did you face those challenges?

In a way “The Leviathan and the Fury” is kind of a thesis of all the historical research I did during 2020-2021, thanks to having a lot of unexpected free time at home and to the Harvard libraries making many of their books available to checkout online. The story centers around what would’ve happened if the French Resistance leader, Jean Moulin, had survived the war, told from the point of view from someone personally mourning him. There are probably hundreds of alternative timelines integrated into the story, so I had to cut a lot of details out. I coped with that by telling myself that one day I could write a longer story or a book elaborating on them more in-depth, haha.

There are a number of authors who are known specifically for their short fiction, and some who have little interest in novels. Are you working on novel-length projects as well? Or do you see yourself primarily as a short fiction author?

Yes! I recently finished polishing a novel and started seeking representation for it. The novel is about a university student who manifests DNA-manipulating magic and must make a choice: “volunteer” to fight in a never-ending war, piloting a mecha with her new powers, or wear a magic-repressor seal marking her as a coward. She chooses to wear the seal and continue her research, hoping to discover a way to end the war, but the military police coerces her to spy on her fellow students. Eventually she teams up with her research advisor, a biology professor, melding magic and science to tear down the racist system that entrapped them both. I put my love of the biological sciences into this novel and really hope I can share that with readers one day.

What else are you working on, what do you have out or coming up that Clarkesworld readers should know about?

I had the chance last year (2023) to participate in the Dartmouth Speculative Fiction Project, a collaboration between authors and Dartmouth faculty to create short stories exploring the future of humanity. This was an amazing opportunity which tapped into a lot of hopes I personally have for speculative fiction and how it can serve as a means of science communication to the public. I really hope that more universities across the world become inspired to follow in Dartmouth’s footsteps and connect their faculty with authors and vice versa!

I have a new story coming out in Lightspeed Magazine in June, “Udo Gehler and the Virgin Bitch of the Resistance,” which I would love to share with readers. It’s a mecha story set in a fractured America, where one side has industrialized an Evangelion-like mecha system, relying on forced birth.

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