A Conversation about the Criminal Justice System in Sci-fi with Matthew Baker, Author of “Life Sentence” 11.07.2021 - New York, USA - Jhon Sánchez INTERVIEW Lightspeed Magazine, I decided to save it to my collections of short stories I should revisit. It was 2019, and Matthew Baker was on my radar. Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to revisit the story because I assigned it to my students as an example of a story told in the present tense. I don’t think the story could never be told in past tense because our main character, Washington, has been deprived of all his memories as a way of punishment. We, the readers, joined Washington in his ‘present’ quest for a new life, for new memories he can hold to it.