First published 2019
This collection opens in the shadowy realm of Kowloon, where a monster feeds on children's imaginations to survive. The stories move through darkness both literal and metaphorical. Three travelers venture into a hallucinatory snowbound night that mirrors their inner turmoil. Writers including Joyce Carol Oates, Rick Moody, and Sallie Tisdale contribute tales that span from dusk until dawn. An East Village bar becomes a doorway to alternate lives. Purgatory reveals itself alongside ghosts and parallel universes. One narrator chronicles their journey to Burning Man in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. The nightbird Nycticorax appears in these pages, along with musical nocturnes and solstice reflections. The collection celebrates photographer George Shiras and his nocturnal captures. Uganda's stark division between night and day receives ethnographic attention. These works echo Scheherazade's vital storytelling tradition, proving that our own narratives sustain us through darkness.
Genres: short-stories, literary-fiction, horror, dark-fantasy
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, emotional, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Black Rock Desert, Burning Man, East Village, Kowloon, Uganda
Period: Dusk, Dawn, Nighttime, Solstice
347 pages · Kindle Edition · Conjunctions
Content warnings: anxiety, death