This reading brings together celebrated speculative fiction writers for a reading of their work, in advance of appearing on the 2026 AWP panel (in Baltimore), titled "Speculating the Machine: How Fiction Writers Are Rendering a New AI Reality," moderated / organized by Joy Baglio. All of the featured authors have thought and written deeply about AI and other future technologies, from depictions of algorithmic consciousness, robotic companions, AI-run cities, to paradoxical future scenarios of sentient, human-like AI. This “Pre-AWP Fiction Reading” asks each author to share a piece of writing that features a portrayal of AI, allowing more time for each author’s work before the AWP panel discussion. Whether or not you plan to be at the conference in Baltimore this coming March, we hope you join us on Zoom to listen to these prominent voices in speculative fiction!

New to AWP? We invite you to join us after the…