Not What I Intended

by Nancy Kress

Nancy Kress has been exploring the possibilities of genetic engineering, human evolution, alien contact, artificial intelligence, and the future of the species for over forty years, with one eye on the bleeding edge of science and the other on the human soul and what makes it bleed. These stories, and the essays that explain her own history and worldview, compose a brief tourist's guide for the world to come. In the title memoir, 'Not What I Intended,' Kress discusses a childhood and community life where no young girl ever dreams of becoming a writer, and how she made those non-dreams come true. 'Patent Infringement' is a short piece inspired by Kress's own time writing corporate copy that managed to predict COVID, COVID vaccines, and the patenting of genes for profit. 'Laws of Survival' is a tale of first contact in which humanity is hardly the species the aliens are interested in - can an amateur dog trainer save the world the aliens have trashed, or at least herself? 'Amy Lowell, Cixin Liu, Jane Austen, and the Art of Fiction' is a compelling essay about the human drive to create patterns, and what the cognitive limitations of patternmaking means for fiction - and for politics. 'Machine Learning' is science fiction but might also be a work of psychological realism about the creation of AI and the healing of a scientist's grief over the loss of his daughter. And featuring an in-depth Q&A with new Outspoken Authors series co-editor Nick Mamatas, who travelled up to Seattle to talk to Nancy about the future of plagues, sleepless nights, teaching science fiction writing, and dogs dogs dogs!

136 pages, Paperback

Published September 9, 2025

About the author

Nancy Kress is an American science fiction writer. She began writing in 1976 but has achieved her greatest notice since the publication of her Hugo and Nebula-winning 1991 novella Beggars in Spain which was later expanded into a novel with the same title. In addition to her novels, Kress has written numerous short stories and is a regular columnist for Writer's Digest. She is a regular at Clarion writing workshops and at The Writers Center in Bethesda, Maryland. During the Winter of 2008/09, Nancy Kress is the Picador Guest Professor for Literature at the University of Leipzig's Institute for American Studies in Leipzig, Germany.

Excerpted from Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another crackerjack entry in the Outspoken Author series by PM Press, where short books contain a few fiction pieces, an essay, an interview of the author by the series editor, and a bibliography.

Nancy Kress is known as the queen of the hard science fiction writers. She certainly didn't start out that way, raised in a traditional family where her mother presented her (at age 12) with the career options of secretary, nurse or teacher. She chose teacher, and taught elementary school for a few years before having babies and becoming isolated in her married life. She turned to writing as a relief valve, and started writing science fiction since that's what she devoured growing up. Selling a few stories, she expanded her involvement after her marriage ended, and she became a prominent voice in the field at an age where many writers had already had a decade or two of success.

All writers come to writing differently, but women writers (especially those raised in the mid 20th century) had a challenging time of it, torn between domestic expectations and career interests, where they often weren't taken very seriously. Kress's path is somewhat unique but resonates with those of other women who finally found their voice in the field. It leads this reader to think about the women who published a promising story or two, and then disappeared. That could have been Kress's story. Fortunately for us, it wasn't.