Q&A With Andrea Kriz

Read our latest Q&A with author Andrea Kriz to discover how a classic Ursula K. Le Guin story helped inspire “The Ones Who Refuse to Walk Away,” Kriz’s latest work in our [September/October issue, on sale now!]

Analog Editor: What is the story behind this piece?
Andrea Kriz: “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula Le Guin has been on a lot of people’s minds lately. I’ve been thinking a lot about how while most people remember the story for Omelas itself, it’s really written as a criticism of the reader’s lack of imagination. We can’t imagine a utopia but readily accept Omelas with all its contrivances, as well as the implication that the only moral choice its citizens can make is physically removing themselves. Why is that? A lot of people would agree that Le Guin’s story is not a challenge to “solve” Omelas but an exhortation to expand our imaginations.
That’s easy to say but very difficult to do. Another thing I’ve been thinking a lot about is the explosion of the use of generative AIs for imaginative work. It may seem harmless to use an AI to paint or write a poem, for example, but I wonder if we’re starting to reach a point where new human artists are discouraged from exercising their own creativity and are instead encouraged to rely solely on AI to be “creative” for them—in other words, accepting that AI can create better than they ever could. In my opinion, such an acceptance would be a devastating loss of imaginative potential.
As a biologist, I think a lot about the not-fully-understood ways our creative “muscles” are intertwined. If humanity begins to entrust art to AIs, then it might become all too easy to let those imaginative muscles atrophy. Soon it may become commonplace to entrust other kinds of imaginative thinking, like the kind Le Guin is exhorting us to develop, to AIs as well. The problem of course being that generative AIs are highly reliant on their training sets and are incapable of truly imaginative thinking. So I guess I was thinking of a future where instead of imagining a better tomorrow and working toward it, humanity was entrusting AI (trained on all our past mistakes) to do that for them.

AE: How much or little do current events impact your writing?
AK: When I first began writing I would’ve said not much but these days I would say more and more.

AE: Are there any themes that you find yourself returning to throughout your writing? If yes, what and why?
AK: I find myself writing about wars and ordinary people trying to survive through them. I’m not entirely sure why but I think it’s related to the fact that I started writing seriously after learning more about where both sides of my family came from and the wars they had to survive in order for me to be here.

It may seem harmless to use an AI to paint or write a poem, for example, but I wonder if we’re starting to reach a point where new human artists are discouraged from exercising their own creativity and are instead encouraged to rely solely on AI to be “creative” for them

AE: Do you have any advice for up-and-coming writers?
AK: Don’t give up. Find a process and goals that work for you and don’t worry if they look different from everyone else’s. Develop your own creativity even if other people don’t quite seem to get it. Don’t give up.

AE: Many of our Analog authors are interested in science. Do you have any scientific background, and does it impact your fiction?
AK: I have a PhD in Biological and Biomedical Sciences and currently do research in human brain genetics. I don’t often write about my area of expertise because I find I have the compulsion to get the science exactly right, which can be constraining. However I often think about how both science and fiction utilize creativity.
I was recently on a panel about narratives where I talked about how scientists are taught to present their research in a neat narrative structure (hypothesis formulated on prior research, experiments with clear conclusions, broader impacts), but how I believe good scientists realize that this is just a tool to help understanding. The real world extends beyond a research narrative. For example, most research projects include dozens if not hundreds of experiments which generate negative data and so are never published in a research paper. However, that doesn’t mean that the results of those experiments don’t exist or are not useful. In fact, it’s often ignored data that leads to new insights in biology. For instance, CRISPR regions were first sequenced by scientists in 1987. It was only decades later that their significance was realized and extensively studied to result in the gene editing breakthroughs that are on the forefront of so many basic science and medical advances today.
Similarly, I believe writers should strive to create fictional worlds that extend beyond the pages of the story they write down. This is something we often hear that readers enjoy as well.

AE: How can our readers follow you and your writing?
AK: You can find me on X/Twitter @theworldshesaw and at https://andreakriz.wordpress.com/.

Andrea Kriz is a PhD in Biological and Biomedical Sciences, currently doing research in brain genetics. Her short fiction has also appeared in Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, and Asimov’s Science Fiction and been translated into French in Galaxies SF. Her debut short story collection, Learning to Hate Yourself as a Self-Defense Mechanism, was published by Interstellar Flight Press in May 2024.