Watchlist

Threats known and unknown.

Etgar Keret. Robert Coover. Aimee Bender. Jim Shepard. Alissa Nutting. Charles Yu. Cory Doctorow. Randa Jarrar. Katherine Karlin. Miracle Jones. Mark Irwin. T. Coraghessan Boyle. Dale Peck. Bonnie Nadzam. Lucy Corin. Chika Unigwe.

Footsteps in the night.

Paul Di Filippo. Lincoln Michel. Dana Johnson. Mark Chiusano. Juan Pablo Villalobos. Chanelle Benz. Sean Bernard. Kelly Luce. Zhang Ran. Miles Klee. Carmen Maria Machado. David Abrams. Steven Hayward. Deji Bryce Olukotun. Alexis Landau. Bryan Hurt.

We are being watched. That this statement no longer shocks is itself shocking. Post-Snowden, we know that the government — everywhere — has been reading our emails, listening to our phone calls, and watching whatever we do on the Internet. The only thing concealed is the nature of our watchers.

In Watchlist, some of today’s most prominent and promising fiction writers from around the globe respond to, reflect on, and mine for inspiration the surveillance culture in which we live. From drone strikes to birds mistaken for spies, paintings that change when they’re not looked at to machines that let their dying users look back and reconsider the most important decisions of their lives, these stories take a broad and imaginative look at the state of surveillance in our global and interconnected world. How does constant surveillance affect us? Does it change how we behave as we seek approval or avoid judgment from an often faceless audience? Do we know who’s watching? What does it mean to be watched?

By turns political, apolitical, cautionary, and surreal, these stories reflect on what it’s like to live in the surveillance state.

Nighttime of the city / Robert Coover --
Sleeping where Jean Seberg slept / Katherine Karlin --
Testimony of Malik, Israeli agent, prisoner #287690 / Randa Jarrar --
The relive box / T. Coraghessan Boyle --
Scroogled / Cory Doctorow --
California / Sean Bernard --
Adela, primarily known as, The black voyage, later reprinted as, The red casket of the heart. By Anon / Chanelle Benz --
Ladykiller / Miracle Jones --
The transparency project / Alissa Nutting --
The gift / Mark Irwin --
What he was like / Alexis Landau --
The entire predicament / Lucy Corin --
Coyote / Charles Yu --
Terro(tour)istas / Juan Pablo Villalobos --
Safety tips for living alone / Jim Shepard --
Prof. / Chika Unigwe --
The witness and the passenger train / Bonnie Nadzam --
Moonless / Bryan Hurt --
Our new neighborhood / Lincoln Michel --
Buildings talk / Dana Johnson --
Lifehack at Bar Kaminuk / Mark Chiusano --
Making book / Dale Peck --
Dinosaurs went extinct around the time of the first flower / Kelly Luce --
Ether / Zhang Ran --
Drone / Miles Klee --
Transcription of an eye / Carmen Maria Machado --
The taxidermist / David Abrams --
Second chance / Etgar Keret --
Strava / Steven Hayward --
We are the Olfanauts / Deji Bryce Olukotun --
Viewer, violator / Aimee Bender --
Thirteen ways of being looked at by a Blackbird SR71 / Paul Di Filippo