Saba Nia 
Carpe Diem 

There will be no great-grandchildren for him.

There will be no yearbook photo for some descendant to peer at, tracing their high cheekbones through flesh and photo as they flip through the pages. There will be no video tapes, no secret stash of letters. There will be no amber to pass on. It will die with him, like everyone around him will die, and all of their embarrassing high school stories, monuments, war crimes, and bullet journals.

There will be no photographs of it. No one to collect the debris. It will fade, like the walls they voted, unanimously, to stop repainting because they’re beginning to worry they’ll be the Last.

In a world governed by the Sun, Wind, Sea, and Gaia, golden boy Dante could’ve never predicted what the Fates have in store: humanity is infertile. Deemed ’Aphrodite’s Curse, ’ this mysterious plague upends the framework of society with social upheaval, economic crises, technological advances, ecological revelations, and biological ultimatums.

Drawing from mythology and science fiction, Saba Nia’s Carpe Diem centers around Dante’s family and that of a neighbor, an inquisitive and thoughtful girl named Rose, to explore how relationships evolve and adapt in the backdrop of a prolonged Armageddon.