Between All the Birds in the Sky and Y: The Last Man, you have experience writing about global crises. Do you think that impacts the way you are experiencing this pandemic?

I've written a lot of books and stories and stuff, featuring big disasters, crises and apocalyptic scenarios. The main thing I've always tried to get at in my own work is that terrible events are not a reason to give up, or to abandon hope. They're an occasion for us all to rise to.

I always say that the apocalypse is kind of a wish-fulfillment scenario, because you wouldn't have to go to work or pay taxes, and you're automatically special if you're one of the few survivors. There's something very cozy and snuggly about the end of the world. But I really hope people can learn to think of these scenarios differently, as something that demands more of us.

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I've tried to write optimistic stories about the end of everything. And I hope that I can bring some of that optimism to this particular challenging scenario.

(Also, one of my somewhat dystopian/disaster-oriented stories, "The Bookstore at the End of America," is really a love letter to bookstores and their role in helping us get through awful times. It's in the book A People's Future of the United States.)