First published 2023
This anthology brings together poets, fiction writers, and essayists who see speculation as more than financial gambling. The contributors examine how speculative thinking operates both as capitalism's driving force and as a method for imagining better futures. Their creative pieces explore themes of violence and recovery, what gets remembered and what gets erased, and worlds that exist beyond our current reality. The essays tackle subjects including land and community within the African diaspora, Octavia Butler's fictional universes, and moral questions about humanity's distant future. Rodriguez has assembled voices that challenge accepted limits on what seems achievable. The collection argues that speculation fundamentally concerns human connections. As one writer explains, it addresses what our relationships have been, what they are now, and crucially, what they might become. At a time when global systems face disruption, these authors position speculative writing as both diagnosis and cure.
Genres: fiction, essays, anthologies, contemporary
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, social-commentary
Setting: Africa
Period: 21st-century
183 pages · Kindle Edition · Boston Review
Content warnings: violence