"When It Ends, He Catches Her" is a 2014

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

short story by

Eugie Foster Eugie Foster (December 30, 1971 – September 27, 2014) was an American short story writer, columnist, and editor. Her stories were published in a number of magazines and book anthologies, including '' Fantasy Magazine'', ''Realms of Fantasy'', ' ...

. It was first published on ''

Daily Science Fiction ''Daily Science Fiction'' is an email and online magazine devoted to publishing science fiction stories that was founded in 2010. Per the title, it is a daily publication, publishing each weekday, edited by Jonathan Laden and Michele Barasso. O ...

'', on September 26, 2014When It Ends, He Catches Her
by

, at

; published September 26, 2014; retrieved June 26, 2015—the day before Foster's death. An audio version (read by

Tina Connolly Tina Connolly is an American science fiction and fantasy writer and poet. Her 2012 book ''Ironskin'' was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel. Her flash fiction podcast "Toasted Cake" won the Parsec Award for Best New Speculative Ficti ...

) was subsequently made available via ''

Pseudopod A pseudopod or pseudopodium (plural: pseudopods or pseudopodia) is a temporary arm-like projection of a eukaryotic cell membrane that is emerged in the direction of movement. Filled with cytoplasm, pseudopodia primarily consist of actin filamen ...

'',Pseudopod 428: When It Ends, He Catches Her
at ''

''; published March 6, 2015; retrieved June 26, 2015 and the story was included in the 2015 ''Long List Anthology: More Stories from the Hugo Awards Nomination List''Long List Anthology Published
by

Mike Glyer Mike may refer to: Animals * Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum * Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off * Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and document ...

, at

File 770 ''File 770'' is a long-running science fiction fanzine, newszine, and blog site published/administered by Mike Glyer. It has been published every year since 1978, and has won a record eight Hugo Awards for Best Fanzine, with the first win in 1 ...

; published December 15, 2015; retrieved May 9, 2016 and ''

Nebula Awards Showcase 2016 ''Nebula Awards Showcase 2016'' is an anthology of science fiction and fantasy short works edited by Mercedes Lackey. It was first published in trade paperback by Pyr in May 2016.

''.

Synopsis

Before civilization fell to a plague of

zombie A zombie (Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in whic ...

s, Aisa was a

ballet dancer A ballet dancer ( it, ballerina fem.; ''ballerino'' masc.) is a person who practices the art of classical ballet. Both females and males can practice ballet; however, dancers have a strict hierarchy and strict gender roles. They rely on yea ...

. Now, she spends her time in an abandoned theater, dancing on an abandoned stage for an imaginary audience.

Reception

"Catches" was nominated for the 2015

Theodore Sturgeon Award The Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award is an annual literary award presented by the Theodore Sturgeon Literary Trust and the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas to the author of the best short science fiction story ...

FINALISTS: 2015 The Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award
by Kristin Centorcelli; at

SF Signal ''SF Signal'' was a science fiction blog and fanzine published from 2003 to 2016. The site was launched by John DeNardo and JP Frantz and focused on writings, events, and other topics focusing on the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and other ...

; published May 13, 2015; retrieved June 26, 2015 and the 2014

Nebula Award for Best Short Story The Nebula Award for Best Short Story is a literary award assigned each year by Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) for science fiction or fantasy short stories. A work of fiction is defined by the organization as a short stor ...

;Announcing the 2014 Nebula Awards Winners!
at

Tor.com ''Tor.com'' is an online science fiction and fantasy magazine published by Tor Books, a division of Macmillan Publishers. The magazine publishes articles, reviews, original short fiction, re-reads and commentary on speculative fiction. From 20 ...

; published June 6, 2015; retrieved June 26, 2015

Ursula Vernon Ursula Vernon (born May 28, 1977) is an American freelance writer, artist and illustrator. She has won numerous awards for her work in various mediums, including the Hugo Award for her graphic novel '' Digger'', the Nebula Award for her short st ...

, who won that award instead, has stated that she had expected "Catches" would win.Nebula Award
by

, at

Livejournal LiveJournal (russian: Живой Журнал), stylised as LiVEJOURNAL, is a Russian-owned social networking service where users can keep a blog, journal, or diary. American programmer Brad Fitzpatrick started LiveJournal on April 15, 1999, as ...

; published June 8, 2015; retrieved June 26, 2015

Jason Sanford Jason Sanford is an American science fiction author best known for his short story writing. His fiction has been published in '' Interzone, Asimov's Science Fiction, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Year's Best SF 14'', ''InterGalactic Medicine Sh ...

called it "a beautiful

elegy An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, and in English literature usually a lament for the dead. However, according to ''The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy'', "for all of its pervasiveness ... the 'elegy' remains remarkably ill defined: sometime ...

on life and death", and "both touching and disturbing."Remembering Eugie Foster and her stories
by

, at JasonSanford.com; published March 4, 2015; retrieved June 27, 2015 As well, analysis of the nominations for the 2015

Hugo Awards The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier a ...

has shown that, if it were not for the involvement of the

Sad Puppies Sad Puppies was an unsuccessful right-wing anti-diversity voting campaign run from 2013 to 2017 and intended to influence the outcome of the annual Hugo Awards, the longest-running prize (since 1953) for science fiction or fantasy works. It was ...

, "Catches" would have been a finalist for the

Hugo Award for Best Short Story The Hugo Award for Best Short Story is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The short story award is available for works of fiction of ...

.This Is What The 2015 Hugo Ballot Should Have Been
by Andrew Liptak, at

Io9 ''io9'' is part of Gizmodo media since 2015, and it began as blog launched in 2008 by Gawker Media. The site initially focused on the subjects of science fiction, fantasy, futurism, science, technology and related areas but over the years has ...

; published August 23, 2015; retrieved August 23, 2015

References

Science fiction short stories 2014 short stories {{2010s-sf-story-stub