—Linda Cheng (SWEETMEATS)

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  A real-world event that you must speak to . . .

  Months after Hurricane María devastated Puerto Rico, I read a Washington Post article about a group of young Puerto Ricans who moved to Huron, South Dakota, to work at a turkey-processing plant. The details of their journey were raw and honest, full of heartbreak and hope—it was the spark I needed to write a truthful story.

  —Mayra Cuevas (RESILIENT)

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  A compelling question that begs an inventive answer . . .

  I asked myself two questions: How can the act of remembering be written as a point of action/agency? and What would a selkie story look like if the selkie got to choose? I didn’t want to write a story about a reaction; I wanted to write a story about making a choice. I wrote the second draft while traveling through China, and I can’t help but think that the feeling of being an outsider and stranger helped frame the story.

  —Tanya Aydelott (FLIGHT)

  The very first seed of this story was back in mid-٢٠١٧, when my cat decided to take a nap inside my luggage. I was about to pick it up and she leaped at me. And that’s all it was: What if a cat lived in a bag?

  —Tanvi Berwah (ESCAPE)

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  Ideas for the stories in this volume came from all over, and that’s just the beginning. Most of all, be aware that your ideas really are precious things. They are worth the work of safekeeping. They are worth digging through the bottom of that bag looking for the pen you lost so you can write them down. You never know—if you let the spark burn on the page, it could catch and keep going. Then it could light the whole room.

  Story Prompt: The Last Word

  Did you notice that the stories appearing in this collection are titled in a singular way—with one word?

  Since foreshadowing in storytelling is a way of imagining and prefiguring what’s to come, our hope is that the new writers you discover here will be the authors whose books you’ll covet tomorrow. We like to think that the single-word story titles offer a reader a memorable clue that foreshadows what each story is about. This was how the one-word titles were born.

  Sometimes the Foreshadow authors came to us with their own one-word titles already in mind, and occasionally they asked us to offer them a word that could inspire a story.

  They treated it as a spark.

  Your last story prompt is this: Take a word from the next page and write a story with it as the inspiration . . . and perhaps even the title.

  Let your eyes wander over the words here and see what resonates. Is there one in particular that pops out at you? Is there some kind of divination happening right now within the pages of this book? Who’s to say?

  Here are the words to choose from:

  Perhaps this will spark a new short story in you . . . We hope it does.

  AFTERWORD

  by Nova Ren Suma

  As we close this book with your own story ideas, and hopefully some new beginnings, it makes me think of mine . . . I will always remember my first yes. How could any aspiring author forget that magical moment? It certainly didn’t happen quickly, but when it did, it was the beginning of everything.

  I had collected an admirable pile of rejections before the morning I stood on the subway platform at 110th and Broadway in New York City, many years ago, waiting for the downtown 1 train to take me to my office job. Right there, under the streets of the city, among strangers, I tore open an envelope, expecting the usual bad news often addressed “Dear Writer” and printed on a small slip of paper. Instead I found a full-size sheet of paper and on it my first-ever short story acceptance, something I’d wished for and worked toward for what felt like a long time. It had finally happened. Someone had said yes.

  The acceptance letter was from a small literary journal sixteen hundred miles away, in Texas, a place I’d never visited. Somehow the editors wanted to include my words in their next issue. Mine.

  I remember so clearly the moment this realization dawned on me: There I was in my uncomfortable work shoes facing the wind of an oncoming train, and as the lights grew larger and the nose of the train edged closer, I felt my whole body lift.

  For days I’d had the envelope crumpled in my pocket, forgotten, assuming it was yet another rejection for my collection. And now I held the good news like it could carry me up through the subway grate and high above the streets and spires of my city. It felt that powerful to me, that meaningful. Every time I think of it, I’m suspended, in the midst of soaring, seconds before the train pulls in. That’s where my memory cuts off, sharp as the too-snug heels of my shoes. I don’t know how I made it onto that train and to my desk downtown to work an ordinary day after holding such tremendous news in my hands.

  I was about to be a published fiction writer. There was a seat for me, or at least a few inches of space where I could squeeze myself in and grab hold of a pole. I don’t know how I made it to my desk downtown to work an ordinary day after such tremendous news, but thanks to those editors in Texas, this train would carry me to the next chapter in my life. I stepped on.

  Now, with Foreshadow, I had the opportunity to be on the other side of the writer/publisher divide. I got to be one of the editors offering the good news.

  There are thirteen yeses in this book. Some were the very first. What an honor it has been to be a part of this process for these memorable, distinctive voices—and, best of all, to share them here.

  The magic contained in these pages is not just meant for the writers we’re so thrilled to publish. It’s for you, too. Did you sense it? Did you hear us calling your name?

  Because in the end, this collection does more than introduce you to thirteen dazzling new writers. We’ve asked you to engage with us on a deeper level, and we’ve loved every minute of getting to dig in and spotlight so many cunning craft choices. To the aspiring writers among you, I see you there, standing in your uncomfortable shoes, wondering when a door will open. I hope you’ll make use of this collection as you write. These pieces will be here to offer you a glimpse into the writing process—at times a close study, at times a challenging push. We hope there was a story you read here and connected with, a craft conundrum you found answered, a prompt you followed and grew into something worthy and real. The magic is in your hands now, and the moment has come.

  Take it.

  Write your story . . . The next train is approaching.

  The Magical Origin Story of FORESHADOW

  In the beginning, long before the book you hold in your hands was an inkling of a thought, there were two YA authors traveling together to a book conference. The authors got to talking about secret publishing dreams, the kind that seem impossible and so pie-in-the-sky that you’re afraid to even start . . . But when one author confessed to the other that she had a precious jewel of an idea cupped between her palms—a YA literary journal for short stories—the other author said right back, “I’ve always wanted to do that!”

  You know already . . . Those two YA authors were us. Obviously. And by the time we reached the conference, the idea was already taking root. It was many months later when the tug became irresistible and we knew: We needed to make it real.

  During a five-hour lunch at a Ukrainian diner, over pancakes and blintzes, we conceptualized our serial anthology. We were committed to showcasing underrepresented voices, and we wanted to be sure that a huge aspect of our mission was discovering new, unknown writers. The most exciting part came when we found that so many other authors were eager to support this endeavor. Some of them wrote incredible stories of their own for us to publish and elevate our platform. Others generously read stories that were submitted to us and chose their favorites to blurb. And so it was that our website was born: foreshadowya.com. A unique platform that ultimately published thirty-nine brilliant YA short stories.

  We are so grateful for the support we received, and we can hardly believe that we get to hold this very special book—featuring our stunning new voices—in our own hands. Visit foreshadowya.com to read the rest of our collection, from ISSUE 00 to ISSUE 12, featuring not only the emerging writers collected here, but also so many rock-star YA authors you already know and love, including S.K. Ali, Dhonielle Clayton, Brandy Colbert, Stephanie Kuehn, Nina LaCour, Samantha Mabry, Anna-Marie McLemore, Malinda Lo, Mark Oshiro, Randy Ribay, Courtney Summers, and many more.

  Thank you for following us on this journey. It is your readership that makes this magic come alive.

  —Emily X.R. Pan & Nova Ren Suma

  Masthead

  FORESHADOW, in its original online form as foreshadowya.com, was brought to you through the hard work of the following staff members:

  Editors-in-Chief

  Emily X.R. Pan & Nova Ren Suma

  Managing Editor

  Diane Telgen

  Fiction Editors

  Sharyn November

  Alexa Wejko

  Associate Fiction Editors

  Denise Conejo

  Trisha Tobias

  Copy Editors

  Alison Cherry

  Angela Cole

  Natalia Wikana

  Web Developers

  Loren Rogers

  Erik Ryerson

  Helpful Assistant

  Kiwi

  Publicity Manager

  Saraciea J. Fennell

  Managing Editor Emeritus

  Mara Delgado Sánchez

  Assistant Editor Emeritus

  Deeba Zargarpur

  Readers

  Emi Benn, Cristina dos Santos, Michelle Falkoff, Ariane Felix, Raechell Garrett, Francesca Flores, Lili Hadsell, Ri Hayashi, Tarie Sabido, Tashi Saheb-Ettaba, Stuti Telidevara, and Nicole Wang

  Advisor

  Michael Bourret

  The editors of the stories in this collection:

  Denise Conejo: BREAK

  Sharyn November: FLIGHT, RISK, and MONSTERS

  Emily X.R. Pan: BELLY

  Nova Ren Suma: ESCAPE

  Trisha Tobias: SWEETMEATS, PRINCESS, and RESILIENT

  Alexa Wejko: GLOW, FOOLS, and PAN DULCE

  Deeba Zargarpur: SOLACE

  Bios

  Emily X.R. Pan is the New York Times bestselling author of The Astonishing Color of After, which won the APALA Honor Award and the Walter Honor Award, received six starred reviews, was a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist, and was long-listed for the Carnegie Medal. She holds an MFA in fiction from New York University and has taught creative writing in many different capacities, including to undergraduate students at NYU.

  Nova Ren Suma is a two-time Edgar Award finalist for Best Young Adult Novel, for A Room Away from the Wolves and the #1 New York Times bestselling The Walls Around Us. Her other novels include Imaginary Girls and 17 & Gone. She has an MFA in fiction from Columbia University and teaches creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania and in the Writing for Children and Young Adults MFA program at Vermont College of Fine Arts.

  STORY AUTHORS

  Tanya Aydelott is Pakistani American, but spent most of her childhood in Cairo, Egypt, as it was the simplest geographic compromise her parents could find. Perhaps because of this, she loves hot breezes, hibiscus tea, and cumin. She earned her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts and currently makes her home in Texas. When not at work or writing, she is probably at a museum or making jam.

  Tanvi Berwah is a writer based in South Asia. She has a master’s degree in English literature from the University of Delhi, and once wrote a term paper on fictional languages in The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. You can visit her online at tanviberwah.com.

  Gina Chen writes fantasy stories about heroines, antiheroines, and the kind of cleverness that brings trouble in its wake. She resides in sunny Southern California, and you can find her online at actualgina.com.

  Linda Cheng was born in Taiwan and resides in Vancouver, Canada. She received her BFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design and worked as an art director in ad agencies across the Southern United States, where she developed a deep love for sweet tea, grits, and Southern Gothic stories. She is currently working on her first novel, learning to play the cello, and introducing obscure ’90s anime to her toddler. Find her on Twitter: @Linda_Y_Cheng.

  Mayra Cuevas was born and raised in Puerto Rico. She is a professional journalist and fiction writer who prefers love stories with happy endings. She is currently a producer for CNN and keeps her sanity by practicing Buddhist meditation at Kadampa Meditation Center Georgia. She lives with her husband, also a CNN journalist, and their cat in Norcross, Georgia. She is the stepmom to two amazing young men who provide plenty of inspiration for her stories. Follow her on Twitter: @MayraECuevas, and Instagram: @MayraCuevas.

  Nora Elghazzawi is a Muslim Lebanese American writer currently living in Boston, Massachusetts. Her passions include travel, classical music, and lovely words. When she isn’t consuming inordinate amounts of iced coffee or daydreaming about beautiful books, she can be found working on her YA novel, writing out her own magical adventure. Find Nora on Twitter: @noraelghazzawi.

  Desiree S. Evans is a writer from South Louisiana. She holds degrees in journalism from Northwestern University and international policy from Columbia University. She was a recent Fiction Fellow at the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin. Her writing has been supported by the Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation (VONA), the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop, Kimbilio Fiction, and the Hurston/Wright Foundation. Her short fiction has appeared in journals such as Gulf Coast, The Offing, and Nimrod Journal, among others. Visit Desiree on the web at desiree-evans.com, and on Instagram and Twitter: @literarydesiree.

  Rachel Hylton lives in the mountains of western North Carolina. She received her MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts, where she was the recipient of the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Prize and the In a Nutshell Short Story Award. When not writing or teaching, Rachel is usually hiking, reading, or hanging from a dance trapeze. Out of respect, she no longer eats lobster. You can find her on Instagram @rachelinmountains or Twitter @rachelhyltonx.

  Adriana Marachlian is a writer and doctor, born and raised in Venezuela and blooming in New York. She enjoys losing herself in worlds that only exist in her head, naming plants, and making people uncomfortable. When she’s not buying way too many succulents, she writes stories about ghosts, witches, and the magic hiding just underneath the surface. You can find her on Twitter: @aemarachlian.

  Sophie Meridien is a teen librarian and writer currently residing in south Florida. When she isn’t throwing her favorite books at teenagers, you can find her working on her YA novel, drinking heavily sweetened coffee, and stressing out over the New York Yankees. You can find her on Twitter: @sophiesticates.

  Maya Prasad is a South Asian American writer, a Caltech graduate, and a former Silicon Valley software engineer. She now resides in the Pacific Northwest, where she enjoys hiking, canoeing, and raising her budding bookworm daughter. A recipient of the We Need Diverse Books mentorship program, she’s passionate about creating brown girl leads in children’s literature. Visit her website mayaprasad.com or find her on Instagram and Twitter: @msmayaprasad.

  Flor Salcedo was born and raised in the border town of El Paso, Texas. She currently resides in Austin, Texas, with her husband and six cats. She is a programmer by day and writer by almost-every-single-other-moment. She is seeking representation for her debut novel, a dark YA sci-fi dystopia (with a bit of humor in it, too). When she isn’t doing writerly or programming things, or catching up on sleep, she can be found kissing cats and . . . kissing cats. Follow her on Twitter: @florspower.

  Joanna Truman is a writer, filmmaker, and photographer originally from a tiny town in West Virginia. She now lives in Los Angeles, where she is the creative director at Soapbox Films. She holds a BFA in Film Production from the FSU College of Motion Picture Arts. She has published speculative fiction in Apex Magazine and Luna Station Quarterly and has been featured in the nationally broadcast NPR program To the Best of Our Knowledge. She lives with three cats and one dog and thus is utterly outnumbered in most decisions. Find Joanna online at joannatruman.com and on Twitter & Instagram: @joannatruman.

  FICTION EDITORS

  Denise Conejo (associate fiction editor with foreshadowya.com) is an administrative aide at New York University and a freelance editor. A Dominicanx from New York, Denise grew up in Harlem, where she discovered her love of reading and community. She holds a BA in English from the City College of New York, where she also completed the Publishing Certificate Program. Find Denise on Twitter: @DeniConejo.

  Sharyn November (fiction editor with foreshadowya.com) is an editor and marketing strategist who works with authors, agents, publishers, librarians, booksellers, and teenage readers. Before that, she was senior editor at Viking Children’s Books and editorial director of Firebird. Her books have received the World Fantasy Award, the Scott O’Dell Award, the Christopher Medal, and the Michael L. Printz Award, and she herself is a two-time World Fantasy Award Finalist for her editorial work. Find Sharyn on Twitter and Instagram: @sn0vember.

  Trisha Tobias (associate fiction editor with foreshadowya.com) is an associate developmental editor at book packager Dovetail Fiction, a 2018 Walter Dean Myers Grant recipient, and a 2019–2020 Highlights Foundation Diversity Fellow. She holds a BA in Media and Communication Studies from Fordham University with a minor in Creative Writing. Find Trisha on Twitter: @misstrishtobias.

  Alexa Wejko (fiction editor with foreshadowya.com) is an editor at Soho Teen, an imprint of Soho Press. Formerly an adjunct professor at Queens College, where she received her MFA in Creative Writing and Literary Translation, Alexa has worked on a wide range of children’s books, including the New York Times bestseller Everless.