Book Talk with Z. Hanna: We're Gonna Get Through This Together
Possible Futures is excited to celebrate National Short Story Month with author Z. Hanna, who will read from and discuss their political and satirical short story collection, We’re Gonna Get Through This Together. Z. will be joined in conversation by local writer and professor Aaraf Afzal.
More about the book:
We’re Gonna Get Through This Together is a sharp and affecting debut story collection that takes a discerning look at what happens when people search for connection in an alienating world. Blending satire, realism, and speculative fiction, Z. Hanna writes incisively about race, class, gender, sexuality, art, and activism—exploring the forces that bring people together and drive them apart.
In the titular story, a white antiracist consultant tries to figure out how to sustain her work after her Mexican-American girlfriend abandons their coaching practice. “A Little to the Left” tells the story of a lesbian home from college who recruits a boy she knew in high school to help her become more queer. A supervisor at an “elective prison” in “The Birmingham Effect” struggles to motivate his team as the company navigates a public scandal. In “Heroes’ Journey,” a trans couple attends a psychedelic retreat for climate activists while trying to heal their relationship.
More about Z.:
Z. Hanna is a writer from Washington, DC. They have a BA from Middlebury College and an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. Their short fiction has appeared in Guernica, The Breakwater Review, Every Day Fiction, and more. Their debut short story collection We’re Gonna Get Through This Together was published by Modern Artist Press in March 2025. When not writing, Z. is organizing to address some aspect of the polycrisis, watching stand-up comedy, or furiously scribbling in an adult coloring book.
More about Aaraf:
Aaraf Afzal was invented in Dhaka, Bangladesh at some point in the early ‘90s. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from CalArts and primarily writes sci-fi, fantasy, and occasionally nonfiction essays about film and video games. His work explores the lines between genres and the metanarrative relationships we have with the art we love, especially across different cultural contexts. He is a contributor at Palette Swap and his bylines include Los Suelos, essays for Unwinnable Exploits, and satire at Hard Drive. He is currently an adjunct professor at Quinnipiac University and makes video essays on YouTube doing silly ethnographies of video game NPCs under the moniker “SolidArf.” Aaraf lives with his partner in an unexplained wormhole somewhere in Connecticut.
More about Modern Artist Press:
Modern Artist Press looks to expand and explode the definition of a modern artist by publishing works of literary fiction. Founded in 2023, and based in Northern Virginia, Modern Artist Press is a small, woman-owned independent press. The press is committed to amplifying the work of writers and artists who are women, non-binary; Black, Indigenous, Latina/o/x, Arab, Asian; LGBTQ+; neurodivergent, disabled; multinational, multicultural, multidisciplinary; and those defining and redefining their identities.