Michele Tracey Berger has a voice like no one else. —Julia Rios, Hugo Award Winning Editor
Doll Seed: Stories by Michele Tracy Berger is a dazzling debut collection of speculative short fiction. The stories span horror, fantasy, science fiction, and magical realism, but are always grounded in very real characters and beautifully rendered, distinctive communities. Often thematically centered on the lives of women and girls, especially women of color and their experiences of vulnerability and outsider status, these stories are often playful and always provocative.
Fifteen stories invite you to get comfortable in the dark, to consider freedom and sacrifice, trust and betrayal, otherness, and safety. Marisol, an aspiring jewelry artist is haunted by a fast-food icon. Chevella, a self-aware doll, finds herself in 1950s America playing a key role in the Civil Rights Movement. Lindsay, a Black girl in 1970s America “wins” an extraterrestrial in a national contest only to find her family’s life upended. Chelsea and Jessa, two sisters, fight about what a strange child means for their family. A meat grinder appears in a magical forest and chaos ensues. All this and more.
…Off-key music boxes, a masterclass of atmospheric wonder and dread. —Jen Julian, author of Red Rabbit Ghost
This is Black Mirror with the emphasis on Black. —Vincent Tirado, author of We Came to Welcome You: A Novel of Suburban Horror
Об авторе
Michele Tracy Berger is the Eric and Jane Nord Family Professor in the Department of Religious Studies and director of the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities at Case Western Reserve University. She has a secondary appointment in the Department of English. Her short fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction has appeared in 100 Word Story, Apex Magazine, Glint Literary Journal, The Wild Word, Blood and Bourbon, FIYAH: Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, Midnight and Indigo, Oracle: Fine Arts Review, Carolina Woman, Ms., and various anthologies.
She is the 2019 winner of the Carl Brandon Kindred Award from the Carl Brandon Society for her story ‘Doll Seed’ published in FIYAH: Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction.
In 2020, her science fiction novella, ‘Reenu-You’ about a mysterious virus transmitted through a hair care product billed as a natural hair relaxer was published by Falstaff Books. The experiences of five unlikely heroines weave a speculative tale that explores race, gender, female friendship, the politics of beauty and corporate conspiracy.
Much of her work explores psychological horror, especially through issues of race and gender.
Dr. Berger’s books include Workable Sisterhood: The Political Journey of Stigmatized Women with HIV/AIDS (Princeton University Press, 2004), the co-edited collections Gaining Access: A Practical and Theoretical Guide for Qualitative Researchers (Altamira Press, 2003) and The Intersectional Approach: Transforming the Academy Through Race, Class and Gender (University of North Carolina Press, 2010) and the co-authored Transforming Scholarship: Why Women’s and Gender Studies Students Are Changing Themselves and the World (Routledge 2011, 2014, 2021).
She is the author, most recently, of Black Women’s Health: Paths to Wellness for Mothers and Daughters (New York University Press, 2022), the first monograph to focus on the role of southern African American mothers and their adolescent daughters in shaping health practices.
She is a sought-after public speaker and commentator. Her public scholarship has appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Ed, Ms. Magazine, The Feminist Wire and other media outlets. She is currently co-chair of the Ms. Scholars Board.