PRE-ORDER: midnight & indigo: Sixteen Speculative Stories by Black Women Writers (Issue 15)

Rafeeat Aliyu, Charity Ben, Ursa Blair, Verlishia Clay, Tenijah Hamilton, Ann Michelle Harris, Philippa Hatendi-Louiceus, Amanda Helms, Asia Lavay, Lina Munroe, Dinkinish O'Connor, Shanae M. Pruitt, R.R. Setari, Briana Wilvert, Desiree Winns, and LaVoya "V" Woods.

Short Stories

After a tragic accident in the forests surrounding a small Georgia town, a man stops cremating bodies at his family’s funeral home, allowing them to pile up for years in Ursa Blair’s “Godly Play
for Godly Children.”

Philippa Hatendi-Louiceus’ “De” follows a Haitian mother forced to face an unthinkable choice. The complexities of love, loss,
and survival collide in this harrowing exploration of horrors born from systemic hardship.

In a city where practicing magic is outlawed, LaRhelle crafts illegal homemade worlds in her kitchen in “How to Break a World” by Lina Munroe. When her best friend needs her to help a teenage girl trapped inside a stolen one, she rushes to save the girl’s life before it’s too late.

In “Kinfolk” by Verlishia Clay, Nat has always known her family’s dark secret—they’re cannibals, surviving on the travelers who stray too close to their isolated cabin. When she discovers a lost boy with a gentle heart and captivating smile, she makes a dangerous
choice.

Set in an extinct, majority Black settlement, “Within Dead Dreams” by Amanda Helms focuses on the impact of generational trauma
and societal racism through the viewpoints of two high school students, one Black and one white.

Asia Lavay’s “Black Skin on Snow” tracks a girl trapped in a cabin, rethinking her circumstances and allowing her shame to harm others—isolated, wrestling with feelings, and the need to bleed.

R.R. Setari’s “Rats on the Boulevard” follows a food delivery driver earning extra cash collecting dead rats for the mysterious resident of 23 Tremaine Boulevard.

In “Blink” by Ann Michelle Harris, a woman time-jumps uncontrollably through her own life, gaining greater perspective on
how society treats her.

In “The Under” by Shanae M. Pruitt, the residents of the small town of Edme celebrate an annual Unification Ceremony, a mysterious event in which one of the residents is selected to venture to the
drowned city beneath the town’s lake.

In Dinkinish O'Connor’s “I feel you like freedom between my legs,” it has been almost a year since the biggest massacre this part of Florida has ever seen. On a plantation, Leslie is forced into a voyeur’s ritual, until an ancestral chant summons a sisterhood of spirits.

In “Whiskey Sour Moon” by LaVoya “V” Woods, an astronaut prepares for a lunar mission as Earth deteriorates from environmental collapse. During the countdown to liftoff, the protagonist’s mind drifts between a passionate romance and a final reconciliation with an estranged father.

In “The River” by Charity Ben, estranged sisters navigate a lifelong feud over their recently deceased father. They must reconcile their differences to escape his house, which is mysteriously flooding.

In “Changeling” by Briana Wilvert, a new mother’s world unravels when her colicky baby becomes quiet and her own shadow appears to act of its own volition. Between unexplained whispers from the forest, a mysteriously mended mug, and a creeping dread that something isn’t quite right, her reality starts to crumble.

When Nina’s gig runs late and she finds herself waiting for a train alone, in “Malevolence on Mortimer” by Tenijah Hamilton,
she is forced to confront the possibility that she may not be as alone as she thinks.

In “Fireflies, Captive within Her” by Rafeeat Aliyu, during the COVID lockdown, an elderly immigrant is alone for the first time, longing for the life she left behind in Nigeria. When a young woman barges into her home uninvited, she must confront her past before she can be
rid of this terrifying stranger.

And in “Miracle Baby” by Desiree Winns, Paul is not Paul. When her son is returned to her from the rubble of their bombed home, the photo of their reunion becomes famous around the world. But once she’s settled into her new country, she realizes her miracle has been replaced by a psychopathic impostor.