Among the myriad catastrophes facing our world, there is perhaps none more significant, or more difficult to contemplate, than the prospect of a sixth mass extinction wrought by human action. The annihilation of our fellow Earthlings is tragedy of a different order from the related concepts of anthropogenic climate change and the Anthropocene, and their most devastating conclusion. As the essays collected here dramatize, weighing the implications of this rending of the web of life forces us to confront the question of what species are, why they are valuable, and what it means to be human. In thinking about the implications of the sixth extinction for human storytelling, they seek to intervene in this most tragic of narratives, in hopes of forging an alternate ending. -- Jesse Oak Taylor, University of Washington