ABOUT THE BOOK
From Philip K. Dick Award finalist Elwin Cotman, an irresistibly unnerving collection of stories that explore the anxieties of living while Black—a high-wire act of literary-fantastical hybrid fiction.
A rural town finds itself under the authoritarian sway of a tree that punishes children. A pair of old friends navigate their fraught history as strange happenings escalate in a Mexican restaurant. A pair of narcissistic friends wreak havoc on an activist community. An aloof young man finds himself living through his lover’s memories. And a day of LARPing takes a cosmic turn.
In each of the seven stories in this collection, characters pursue their obsessions on paths to glory and destruction while around them their worlds twist and warp, oscillating between reality and impossibility. On display throughout is Cotman’s ability to reveal truths about the human experience—about friendship, love, betrayal, bitterness—through whimsy, horror, and fantasy. Elegiac in tone, imaginative and humorous in their execution, the character-driven stories in Weird Black Girls challenge, incite, and entertain.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elwin Cotman was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where the post-industrial landscape greatly influenced his love for myth and adventure. He is the author of three prior collections of speculative short stories: The Jack Daniels Sessions EP, Hard Times Blues, and Dance on Saturday, which was a finalist of the Philip K. Dick Award. Cotman holds a BA from the University of Pittsburgh and an MFA from Mills College.
ABOUT THE INTERLOCUTOR
Leigh Dana Jackson is a writer and Executive Producer for the Emmy-nominated series Foundation at Apple TV+. Previously, he wrote and Executive Produced the pilot The Spook Who Sat By The Door for FX and also served as Consulting Producer for their Emmy-nominated series The Old Man, starring Jeff Bridges. At Netflix, he was a writer and Co-Executive Producer for the Emmy-nominated series Raising Dion, starring Michael B. Jordan. In features, he’s currently writing Black Samurai for Netflix with Chad Stahelski directing. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife.
