Microinterview with Colleen Anderson

Colleen Anderson, author of the poem “In Our Nature” in The Future Fire #76, is this week’s microinterview guest, here to talk about her poem, betrayal and alternate history.

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Art © 2026 Joel Bisaillon

TFF: What does “In Our Nature” mean to you?

Colleen Anderson: We think we always can tame nature. GMO, orchards, controlling “weeds” and making it work for us, but humanity has also done incredible damage to the world. Nature may one day rebalance and will not consider human want.

TFF: What is the thing that you find most difficult to forgive?

CA: Betrayal. To put trust in a friend or a family member who then does something that destroys a fundamental trust—that is unforgiveable.

TFF: What are you working on next?

CA: I’m working on an alternate history novel, a chapbook of “bad food” poems and on a collaboration of lost objects.

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Extract

In the beginning—
there was no beginning
not for flowers, trees, glacial rivers
evolving with the planet’s cycles
swimming through acid erosion

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Reminder: You can comment on any of the writing or art in this issue at http://press.futurefire.net/2026/05/new-issue-202676.html.

Micro-interview with Toeken

And this week's guest in the microinterview series is Toeken, artist of “Believe Me” and “The Trident-Tailed Water Monster” in The Future Fire #76.

Art © 2026 Toeken

TFF: How did you go about illustrating “Believe Me”?

Toeken: Though it is a short tale, Christine Amsden’s splendid story is filled with such vivid imagery that it was tricky distilling ideas into the final illustration.

TFF: What was the image that really stuck with you from “The Trident-Tailed Water Monster”?

Toeken: It was probably something as deceptively simple as the “abandoned pool that had gone green from algae.”

TFF: What would be the most terrifying thing about being in outer space?

Toeken: I’d imagine it would be just trying to comprehend the sheer scale, the enormity of space itself, the awareness of the immense gulfs of space between stars and planets.

TFF: Have you ever seen a statue or a piece of art that you wished was alive?

Toeken: Bill Sienkiewicz’s rendition of the character “Warlock.” That’d be a treat to see strolling around.

TFF: What else are you working on now?

Toeken: Working with the writer Phil Emery on a scifi/noir comedy graphic novel, Hammek, which is being shopped around now; Vampyre Noir, another comic series, more paintings and a couple of book covers, one of which is for the writer Simon Bleaken’s upcoming collection of dark tales.

Art © 2026 Toeken

Reminder: You can comment on any of the writing or art in this issue at http://press.futurefire.net/2026/05/new-issue-202676.html.