New publication alert! “The Windkeeper” is now free to read on the Tales & Feathers website, joining stories and poems by Shreejita Majumder, Kathleen Schaefer, Avra Margariti, Clara Ward, Audris Candra, Jo Telle, Carol B. Duncan, Niall Spain, Wen Wen Yang, Stefan Alcalá Slater, and Marisca Pichette.

(Stories will be uploaded throughout the year. If you want to read them all now, you can purchase the full volume from the Augur Literary Society store.)

Featuring a beautiful illustration from Jacob Tonellato, “The Windkeeper” is a story about a windmill maintenance worker, his chocolate Labrador, and a visitor to his little white house on the edge of a dusty plain.

It began as a 2023 Secret Santa exchange for the prompt “solarpunk” and “wooden box.” Solarpunk always gives me leafy green vibes, but, unfortunately for my houseplants and my chances of survival after the collapse of society, I have two black thumbs. So I tilted at windmills. And, true to form, I killed all the plants. The landscape is barren, dusty. Post-apocalyptic. The air is thick. The people are scarce. A friend texted after reading, “SIMO WHAT HAPPENED TO THE EARTH.” Bad things! But—eventually—good things too.

At the time of writing, I was yearning for a quieter, more analog kind of life, and I think readers will be able to see that reflected in the slower pace of this story and its focus on simpler pleasures: watching a lightning storm from the safety of a cozy shelter, reading books in a place where books are scarce, eating a meal with a friend, listening to records.

While I didn’t spell it out explicitly, I hope readers will pick up on hints that the protagonist of “The Windkeeper” is autistic. He is nonverbal, solitary, and very keen on certain interests.

“The Windkeeper” was my first submission to Tales & Feathers as a Canadian permanent resident. (My first acts after obtaining PR: Getting a library card and submitting stories to Augur and T&F! Priorities.) It was a pleasure and a privilege to work with editor Louise Koren and the rest of the T&F team. The story is much stronger thanks to Louise’s suggestions, and I’m so glad it’s found such a sweet, cozy home at Tales & Feathers.