From the Voodoonauts Afrofuturist collective for Black science fiction and fantasy writers.

When a desperately mundane woman borrows clothing from her mother, a soucouyant goes searching for her skin. A Nigerian parent climbs mountains to heaven to steal a name and glorious destiny for their newborn. A master tailor gets her skills tested when a spectral customer enters her workshop and she can't say no. A preacher casts dark magic from his pulpit when the Word ain't enough to run his church. These tales and more populate Voodoonauts Present: (Re)Living Mythology.

Called from the imaginations of its inaugural fellows and a handful of solicited authors including Christopher Caldwell, TL Huchu, and Eden Royce, Voodoonauts curates a coterie of short fiction and poetry that paints across the breadth of magic and Blackness. Co-editors/founders Shingai Njeri Kagunda, Yvette Lisa Ndlovu, Hugh "HD" Hunter, and LP Kindred ask Black Writers to...]]> Sat, 17 Dec 2022 14:00:22 +0200 https://mystery.library.land/yvette-lisa-ndlovu/643809-drinking_from_graveyard_wells.html https://mystery.library.land/yvette-lisa-ndlovu/643809-drinking_from_graveyard_wells.html

"Even in death, who has ownership over Black women's bodies?"

Questions like this lurk between the lines of this stunning collection of stories that engage with African women's histories, both personal and generational. Their history is not just one thing: there is heartbreak and pain, and joy, and flying and magic, so much magic. An avenging spirit takes on the patriarchy from beyond the grave. An immigrant woman undergoes a naturalization ceremony in an imagined American state that demands that immigrants pay a toll of the thing they love the most. A first-generation Zimbabwean-American woman haunted by generational trauma is willing to pay the ultimate price to take her pain away—giving up her memories. A neighborhood gossip wakes up to find that houses are mysteriously vanishing in the night. A shapeshifting freedom fighter leaves a legacy of resistance to her granddaughter.

In Drinking from Graveyard Wells, Yvette Lisa Ndlovu assembles poignantly...]]> Tue, 18 Apr 2023 22:30:09 +0300