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New Worlds Old Ways


New Worlds, Old Ways: Speculative Tales from the Caribbean





Genre: Short Story Anthologies (Adult)
Publisher: Peepal Tree Press (November 2016)
ISBN: 9781845233365 (paperback)
Paperback: 164 pages


SYNOPSIS

Discover some of the best in speculative short fiction from the Caribbean's up and coming voices.

Do not be misled by the "speculative" in the title. Although there may be robots and fantastical creatures, these common symbols are tools to frame the familiar from fresh perspectives. Here you will find the recent past and ongoing present of government and society with curfews, crime, and corruption; the universal themes of family, growth and death, love and hate; the struggle to thrive when power is capricious and revenge too bittersweet. Here too is the passage of everything—old ways, places, peoples, and ourselves—leaving nothing behind but memories, histories, and stories.

This anthology speaks to the fragility of our Caribbean home, but reminds the reader that although home may be vulnerable, it is also beautifully resilient. The voice of our literature declares that in spite of disasters, this people and this place shall not be wholly destroyed.

Read for delight, then read for depth, and you will not be disappointed.

Contributors: Tammi Browne-Bannister • Summer Edward • Portia Subran • Brandon O'Brien • Kevin Jared Hosein • Richard B. Lynch • Elizabeth J. Jones • Damion Wilson • Brian Franklin • Ararimeh Aiyejina • H.K. Williams























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Awards & Recognition []
Starred Review from Publishers Weekly        One of Book Riot's Must-Read SFF Short Story Collections in 2017        

A 2016 New West Indian Guide Bookshelf Pick         A 2017 Caribbean Beat Caribbean Bookshelf Pick

Praise & Reviews []
 "The Caribbean has a powerful, modern tradition of fantastic literature that’s on full display in this anthology...none of these writers is likely to be familiar to American audiences, but all are worth getting to know."
    —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"The collection is a boon for scholars and reading aficionados of the speculative fiction genre...New Worlds, Old Ways offers both depth and delight without disappointment. It suggests that if one looks closely enough, they will find that Caribbean fiction has always been speculative."
    —Sx Salon

"A contemporary, vibrant collection of short stories that presents snapshots of various aspects of the Caribbean everyday. The stories represent the Caribbean present, the fantastic, and the future under one powerful, multifaceted and urgent theme...The idea of home is echoed in "The Passing Over of Zephora" by Summer Edward. Pan-Caribbean identity, belonging, the nation state, and the severing of memory are deftly explored in this etheral piece."
    —Caribbean Quarterly: A Journal of Caribbean Culture

"Each writer adds a twenty-first-century voice to the development of the ongoing discourse of understanding Caribbean subjectivity by combining speculative tropes...with postcolonial issues of ‘Othering’, myth and folklore narratives."
    —The Journal of West Indian Literature

"New Worlds, Old Ways aims to root the legacy of science fiction and fantasy writing more reassuringly in home ground. These are stories of terrorized citizens seeking innovations under a police state, of ancestral beginnings butting up against the grim realities of climate change and exile. They announce that Caribbean speculative writing is here to stay."
    —Caribbean Beat

Press []
Literary analysis essay in Journal of West Indian Literature

Book review by Sx Salon

Book review by Caribbean Quarterly: A Journal of Caribbean Culture

Book review by Caribbean Beat

Book review by Publishers Weekly