Dark Matter: Reading the Bones
Edited by Sheree Renee Thomas

Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora

The critically acclaimed, award-winning anthology Dark Matter was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and a Washington Post Book World "Rave" Book of the Year. An innovative and landmark collection, it presented some of the most profound, moving, and entertaining speculative fiction from the African diaspora. Now editor Sheree R. Thomas delves further into this inspirational wellspring with a new volume of great stories that illuminate our world…
Dark Matter: Reading the Bones

Expanding the fields of fantastic fiction, science fiction, and fantasy, this exciting collection of stories, essays, and interviews combines classic tales from great authors with original pieces from emerging black writers. The interests of black writers are manifold; their voices, themes, and aesthetics are as diverse as the homeland of their ancestors. With vision and authenticity, Dark Matter: Reading the Bones divines greater insight into the stunning variety of the black literary tradition.

This rich collection displays narratives of courage, from women in an African forest challenging deep-rooted cultural expectations to hard-eyed urban men in American housing projects resisting a hostile world. From oral folktales to futuristic speculative fiction, from the comedy of the trickster to haunting meditations on survival, these authors explore love and lore, identity and community.

Compelling, complex, and poignant, this new anthology of African-rooted literature will dazzle you with its multifaceted scope.

Contents

Fiction
ibo landing by ihsan bracy
The Quality of Sand by Cherene Sherrard
Yahimba’s Choice by Charles R. Saunders
The Glass Bottle Trick by Nalo Hopkinson
Desire by Kiini Ibura Salaam>
Recovery from a Fall by David Findlay
Anansi Meets Peter Parker at the Taco Bell on Lexington by Douglas Kearney
The Magical Negro by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu
Jesus Christ in Texas by W. E. B. Du Bois
Will the Circle Be Unbroken? by0 Henry Dumas
’Cause Harlem Needs Heroes by Kevin Brockenbrough
Whipping Boy by Pam Noles
Old Flesh Song by Ibi Aanu Zoboi
Whispers in the Dark by Walter Mosley
Aftermoon by Tananarive Due
Voodoo Vincent and the Astrostoriograms by Tyehimba Jess
The Binary by John Cooley
BLACKout by Jill Robinson
Sweet Dreams by Charles Johnson
Buying Primo Time by Wanda Coleman
Corona by Samuel R. Delany
Maggies by Nisi Shawl
Excerpt from Mindscape by Andrea Hairston
Trance by Kalamu ya Salaam

Essays
The Second Law of Thermodynamics
Transcription of a Panel at the 1997 Black Speculative Fiction Writers Conference Held at Clark Atlanta University
by Jewelle Gomez

Her Pen Could Fly: Remembering Virginia Hamilton
by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu

Celebrating the Alien: The Politics of Race and Species in the Juveniles of Andre Norton
by Carol Cooper