Journey with twenty-one speculative fiction authors through
the fractured borders of human migration to examine the dreams,
struggles, and triumphs of those who choose—or are forced—to leave home
and familiar places.
Migration. A transformation of time, place, and being . . .
WHO ARE THE SHADES WITHIN US?
We
are called drifters, nomads. We are expatriates, evacuees, and
pilgrims. We are colonists, aliens, explorers; strangers,
visitors—intruders, conquerors—exiles, asylum seekers, and . . .
outsiders.
An American father shields his son from Irish
discrimination. A Chinese foreign student wrestles to safeguard her
family at the expense of her soul. A college graduate is displaced by
technology. A Nigerian high school student chooses between revenge and
redemption. A bureaucrat parses the mystery of Taiwanese time
travellers. A defeated alien struggles to assimilate into human culture.
A Czechoslovakian actress confronts the German WWII invasion. A child
crosses an invisible border wall. And many more.
Stories that
transcend borders, generations, and cultures. Each is a glimpse into our
human need in face of change: to hold fast to home, to tradition, to
family; and yet to reach out, to strive for a better life.
Featuring Original Stories by
Vanessa Cardui, Elsie Chapman, Kate Heartfield, S.L. Huang, Tyler
Keevil, Matthew Kressel, Rich Larson, Tonya Liburd, Karin Lowachee,
Seanan Mc Guire, Brent Nichols, Julie Nováková, Heather Osborne, Sarah
Raughley, Alex Shvartsman, Amanda Sun, Jeremy Szal, Hayden Trenholm, Liz
Westbrook-Trenholm, Christie Yant & Alvaro Zinos-Amaro
With An Introduction by Eric Choi & Gillian Clinton
Edited by Susan Forest & Lucas K. Law
Anthologies in this series (Strangers Among Us, The Sum of Us, Where the Stars Rise, Shades Within Us) have been recommended by Publishers Weekly, Booklist (American Library Association), Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, School Library Journal, Locus, Foreword Reviews, and Quill & Quire.
Praise for Shades Within Us
‘.
. . addresses issues surrounding migration and borders at a very
poignant moment in history . . . despite being speculative, many of
these stories read like they were ripped from present-day headlines . . .
this collection do a great job of asking readers not only to reflect on
their own lives but also to consider the lives of others.’ —Booklist (American Library Association)
‘With
each story, the authors expand their settings and reality into a
universe of broader potential to make sense of the tensions that plague
the twenty-first century. Even as they represent foreign existences, the
problems remain the same—family, love, belonging, identity, survival . .
. take a fresh approach to their subjects and conjure terrifying
futures brought on by climate change, greed, and corruption of power.
Political and daring, this collection adds to the future imagined by
Philip K. Dick, George Orwell, Margaret Atwood, and Aldous Huxley.’ —Foreword Reviews
‘.
. . Shades Within Us is a timely collection that invites us to ask
whether we still do (or still should) live in a space of national
borders and national definitions of identity. It invites us to use our
speculative imagination to think through new ways of understanding
selfhood in relation to the borders, boxes, and categories that are
placed around us.’ —Speculating Canada (Derek Newman-Stille)
