RASHELL R. SMITH-SPEARS is an associate professor of English at Jackson State University in Jackson, MS. She teaches African American Literature and Creative Writing. Smith-Spears earned a BA in English from Spelman College and a MFA from the University of Memphis. She has published creative works in Short Story, Black Magnolias, and Mississippi Noir.
SHEREE RENÉE THOMAS is the first African American to win the World Fantasy Award (2001, 2005) for editing the Dark Matter anthologies. Born in Memphis, her stories and poems ap- pear in journals and anthologies, including Callaloo, Jalada, Mem-
phis Noir, Mojo: Conjure Stories, So Long Been Dreaming, Stories for Chip, Strange Horizons, and Transition. The author of Shotgun Lullabies (Aqueduct Press, 2011), her new mixed genre book is Sleeping Under the Tree of Life (August 2016).
LORI TITUS is a Californian with an affinity for horror, dark fiction and romance. Her work explores mysticism and reality, treading the blurred line between man and monster. Her work includes The Bell House, Hunting in Closed Spaces, Lazarus, and The Moon Goddess. Connect with her on Twitter or Instagram as Loribeth215.
TANESHA NICOLE TYLER is a student studying English and Psychology at Westminster College. Outside of school, Tanesha can be found writing and performing poetry. Tanesha Nicole began poetry slam in 2014 and has since gone on to represent Salt Lake City in national competitions. She attended WOWPS 2016 where she ranked 9th in the world. Tanesha’s work outside of slam includes community activism, student leadership, and research. Her poem Afterparty can be found on Button Poetry’s YouTube channel.
DEBORAH ELIZABETH WHALEY is Associate Professor of American Studies and African American Studies at the University of Iowa, where she teaches courses on comparative American cultural history, Black cultural studies, film, music, and critical theory. Whaley is the author of Disciplining Women: Alpha Kappa Alpha, Black Counterpublics, and the Cultural Politics of Black Sororities (SUNY, 2010) and Black Women in Sequence: Reinking Comics, Graphic Novels, and Anime (UW Press, 2015).
L. MARIE WOOD is a psychological horror author with two novels and three short story collections under her belt. Her penchant for the quiet side of horror has resonated with readers for over 13 years. She teaches Intro to Horror Fiction at West Virginia University.
K.CERES WRIGHT received her master’s degree in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University and Cog was her thesis novel for the program. An accomplished poet, Wright’s science fiction poem “Doomed” was a nominee for the Rhysling Award. Her work has appeared in Emanations: 2+2=5; Diner Stories: Off the Menu; Many Genres, One Craft; The City: A Cyberfunk Anthology; The Museum of All Things Awesome and That Go Boom, among others.
Fairy Tales have always been a favorite of DEANA ZHOLLIS. Yet the movie Gargoyles (1972) had her mind drifting with romance and/with inhumans. And so the storytelling began...
Engulfed in the genre, she writes of that Happily Ever After with a sizzling twist. Come in and enjoy sensuous, romantic stories where wings are symbols of power, fangs are knives of passion; and the battlefield is fought in the mind and in the soul.
Copyrights and Permissions
Copyrights for short fiction published from manuscript for the first time in this anthology are held by their authors, and all rights are reserved by their authors. Grateful acknowledgement is made for permission to reprint the following copyrighted material:
“Sycorax’s Daughters Unveiled” © 2016 Linda D. Addison.
“A Blues” © 2016 Tiffany Austin. First appeared in African American Review, Volume 49, Issue 4, Winter 2016. Reprinted by permission of the author and The Johns Hopkins University Press and Saint Louis University.
“Toward a Peacock Poem” © 2017 Tiffany Austin.
“Ma Laja” © 2017 Tracey Baptiste.
“Letty” © 2017 Regina N. Bradley.
“The Armoire” © 2017 Patricia E. Canterbury.
“The Monster” © 2017 Crystal Connor.
“The Tale of Eve of De-Nile” © 2017 Joy M. Copeland.
“last of the red hot lovers” © 2017 Amber Doe.
“Cheaters” © 2017 Tish Jackson.
“Mona Livelong: Paranormal Detective II” © 2016 Valjeanne Jeffers. First appeared in Mona Livelong: Paranormal Detective II, by Valjeanne Jeffers. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Foundling”, “More’s the Pity”, “Sweet Jesus in the Corner” © 2017 Tenea D. Johnson.
“To Give Her Whatsoever She Would Ask” © 2017 R. J. Joseph.
“Mama” © 2017 A. D. Koboah.
“Rise” © 2017 Nicole Givens Kurtz.
“Taste the Taint: A Cursed Story” © 2017 Kai Leakes.
“A Real Friend Will Let You Break”, “The Empty House”, “The Lonely, Salty Sea” © 2017 A. J. Locke.
“How to Speak to the Boogeyman” © 2016 Carole McDonnell. First appeared in Horror From The Inside Out: Authors For Autism. Reprinted by permission of the author and Whorror House.
“Terror and the Dark” © 2015 Carole McDonnell. First appeared in The King’s Journal of Lost and Secret Things, by Carole McDonnell. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Taking The Good,” © 2017 Dana T. McKnight.
“A Little Not Music” © 2017 LH Moore.
“The Mankana-kil” © 2017 Leslye Penelope.
“Sweetgrass Blood” © 2017 Eden Royce.
“The Malady of Need” © 2016 Kiini Ibura Salaam. An alternate iteration of this story first appeared in When the World Wounds, by Kiini Ibura Salaam. Reprinted by permission of the author and Third Man Books.
“Dyer Died in Silence”, “Thirsty for Love” © 2017 Andrea Vocab Sanderson.
“Kim” © 2017 Nicole D. Sconiers.
“Scales” © 2017 Cherene Sherrard.
“Born Again” © 2017 RaShell R. Smith-Spears.
“Tree of the Forest Seven Bells Turns the World Round Midnight” © 2016 Sheree Renée Thomas. First appeared in Sleeping Under the Tree of Life, by Sheree Renée Thomas. Reprinted by permission of the author and Aqueduct Press.
“Asunder” © 2017 Lori Titus.
“Polydactyly” © 2017 Tanesha Nicole Tyler.
“Red Scorpion”, “Whispers & Lies” © 2017 Deborah Elizabeth Whaley.
“The Ever After” © 2017 L. Marie Wood.
“Of Sound Mind and Body” © 2017 K. Ceres Wright.
“Perfect Connection” © 2017 Deana Zhollis.
Cover Artist
JIM CALLAHAN is a Concept Artist, Internationally Published Illustrator, 2D Artist, Art Director and Comic Book Artist.
He’s provided concept art for: miniature figure games, video games, film and television and various clients in the gaming and entertainment industries.
His work can be seen for many companies including but not limited to: Marvel, DC, Image, DAW, Blizzard, Sabertooth Games, Sony Entertainment, Namco, Capcom and Giant Sparrow.
Callahan’s work has appeared in more than 80 comic books, graph- ic novels, magazines and publications including Wizard Magazine, Overstreet Price Guide Magazine, Hero Illustrated and more than 60 game rule books, expansions, magazines and game related pub- lications. Projects have included Confrontation, 7th Sea, World of Warcraft, Clan War, Solforge, Sword Art Online, Arcadia, Legend of the Five Rings, C23 X-men, Hex and Battle Monsters.
His work is also spotlighted in “What Remains of Edith Finch”, a forthcoming PS4 game with Giant Sparrow, and a vast amount of Games Workshop publications and games.
He can be reached at [email protected].
Editors
LINDA D. ADDISON grew up in Philadelphia and received a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Carnegie-Mellon University. She is the award-winning author of four collections including How To Recognize A Demon Has Become Your Friend. She is the first African-American recipient of the HWA Bram Stoker Award® and has published over 300 poems, stories and articles. Catch her latest work in the anthologies: The Beauty of Death (Independent Legions Publishing) & Scary Out Ther
e (Simon Schuster).
Linda is the only author with fiction in three landmark anthologies that celebrate African-Americans speculative writers: the award-winning anthology Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction (Warner Aspect), Dark Dreams I and Dark Dreams II (Kensington), and Dark Thirst (Pocket Book). Linda’s work has made frequent appearances over the years on the honorable mention list for Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. Her site: www.lindaaddisonpoet.com.
KINITRA D. BROOKS is an associate professor of English at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her research interests include contemporary African American and Afro-Caribbean, black feminism, and horror studies. Her monograph, Searching or Sycorax: Black Women Haunting Contemporary Horror, is forthcoming at Rutgers University Press. Currently, she is working on a book-length exploration of black women writers and genre fluidity tentatively titled, Nalo, Nnedi & Nora: Contemporary Black Women Writers Challenging Genre Normativity. She is also co-editing a critical volume on black women and horror titled Towards a Black Women’s Horror Aesthetic: Critical Frameworks with Susana M. Morris. She has published articles in African American Review, Obsidian: Literature and Arts in the African Diaspora, and FEMSPEC.
SUSANA M. MORRIS is an associate professor of African American literature at Auburn University and co-founder of the popular feminist blog, The Crunk Feminist Collective. Morris is the author of Close Kin and Distant Relatives: The Paradox of Respectability in Black Women’s Literature (UVA Press 2014) and co-editor, with Brittney C. Cooper and Robin M. Boylorn, of the forthcoming anthology, The Crunk Feminist Collection (Feminist Press 2017). She has published articles in journals such as Signs: Journal of Women in Cul- ture and Society, The Black Scholar, South Atlantic Quarterly, Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature and Women’s Studies Quarterly. She is currently at work on a book project tentatively entitled Electric Ladies: Black Women, Afrofuturism, and Feminism. Morris is also series editor, along with Kinitra D. Brooks, of the book series New Suns: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Speculative, published at The Ohio State University Press.
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Regina Bradley, African American Literature, Armstrong State University
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Table of Contents
Dedications
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Introduction
Tree of the Forest Seven Bells Turns the World Round Midnight
The Lonely, Salty Sea
Scales
Letty
A Real Friend Will Let You Break
Ma Laja
Red Scorpion
Born Again
Thirsty For Love
How to Speak to the Bogeyman
Sweet Jesus in the Corner
The Monster
last of the red hot lovers
Taste the Taint: A Cursed Story
Whispers & Lies
Cheaters
Kim
More’s the Pity
Summer Skin
A Blues*
Taking the Good
Polydactyly
Mona Livelong: Paranormal Detective II
The Malady of Need
The Ever After
Perfect Connection
Foundling
Rise
Of Sound Mind and Body
Asunder
Terror and the Dark
The Tale of Eve of De-Nile
Sweetgrass Blood
The Armoire
A Little Not Music
Dyer Died in Silence
The Mankana-kil
Toward a Peacock Poem
Mama
To Give Her Whatsoever She Would Ask
The Empty House
Afterword: Sycorax’s Daughters Unveiled
Afterword: Sycorax Speaks
Contributors
Copyrights and Permissions
Cover Artist
Editors
Landmarks
Cover
Sycorax's Daughters Page 45