Next Octavia’s Blood & Brood Book Club Session

 
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HOW LONG ‘TIL BLACK FUTURE MONTH by N.K. JEMISIN

Three-time Hugo Award winner and NYT bestselling author N. K. Jemisin challenges and delights readers with thought-provoking narratives of destruction, rebirth, and redemption that sharply examine modern society in her first collection of short fiction, which includes never-before-seen stories.
Spirits haunt the flooded streets of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In a parallel universe, a utopian society watches our world, trying to learn from our mistakes. A black mother in the Jim Crow South must save her daughter from a fey offering impossible promises. And in the Hugo award-nominated short story "The City Born Great," a young street kid fights to give birth to an old metropolis's soul.

 
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ALMAH LaVon Rice, October Co-Facilitator

Almah LaVon Rice writes creative nonfiction and short fiction in the key of AfroSurreal. Her short story, "The Hood Doctor," is forthcoming in Gumbo Media's digital zine on pandemic Afrofuturism. Her spellbook of speculative fiction will be completed in 2021.

 
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DOMINIC Cinnamon Bradley, October Co-Facilitator

Dominic Cinnamon Bradley (The Johns Hopkins University BA | Columbia University MSW) is a Brooklyn-based queer artist reared in the crunk-era “Dirty South.” A Roots. Wounds. Words. alum and assistant teaching artist, Dominic has been featured in such publications as Color Bloq, The Guardian, and HuffPost. They’re work is also anthologized in RADICAL: An Unapologetic Anthology of Women and Gender Nonconforming Storytellers of Color. Currently, they are at work on their debut YA novel.

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UNEXPECTED STORIES by Octavia Butler

Unexpected Stories is, by any measure, an unexpected gift. This slender but resonant volume contains two stories—recently unearthed and never before in print—by one of the most significant figures in modern science fiction: Octavia E. Butler. “A Necessary Being” takes us into the heart of an alien culture with a rigid hierarchical system based on caste and skin coloration. In the second story, “Childfinder,” the title character is a woman who uses her psychic abilities to track down children with similar nascent abilities—and protect them from the abuses of a predatory society.

 
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HEATHER Stokes, November Facilitator

Heather Stokes is a Norwalk, CT based writer, who holds an Associate’s degree in General Studies from the University of Bridgeport and is currently pursuing her Bachelor’s degree in Social Work. Her experiences as both a black woman and a convicted felon have fueled her passion to bring healing and health into BIPOC communities throughout her state.

In addition to her full time job, Heather is a doula in training with the Earth’s Natural Touch doula training program, a 14-month program specifically geared towards women of color and women in underserved populations. Her goal is to serve women who are planning to give their children up for adoption and women who will be giving birth while incarcerated. Heather is also in the process of developing her own coaching/healing program designed to help formerly incarcerated women heal past wounds and take back control of their lives. As a felon, she recognizes the need for a healing community for these women.

Heather’s writing appears or is forthcoming in RADICAL: An Unapologetic Anthology by Women & Gender Nonconforming Storytellers, The Rumpus, and Raising Mothers: A Literary Magazine. When she is not plotting to save the world one BIPOC community at a time, Heather takes care of her niece & sister. They, along with her colorful life experiences, provide the background for her writing.