Back in February, before the novel coronavirus reshaped the worlds social landscape, I had the privilege of participating in my first short story hackathon. I was invited by ASUs Center for Science and Imagination, in collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) in Denver, Colorado. Unlike a software hackathon, the purpose of this was not to win a contest but to create a book of fiction, art, and essays.

Heres how it worked: each team had one science fiction author, one...