Talk Like a Man

In these previously uncollected stories, Shawl explores the unexpected horizons (and corners) opened up by science fiction and fantasy’s new diversity. In her worlds, sex can be both business and religion, complete with ancient rites, altars, and ointments (“Women of the Doll”); a virtual reality high school is a proving ground for girlpacks and their unfortunate adversaries (“Walk like a Man”); and a British rock singer finds an image in a mirror that reflects both future hits and ancient horrors (“Something More”). With her trademark wit passing for wisdom, Shawl lights up our Outspoken Interview and then, in a talk given at Duke University, explores the connections between ancient Ifa and modern science fiction.

Nisi Shawl is an African American writer, editor, and journalist. She is best known for her science fiction and fantasy stories and novels dealing with race, gender, and sexual orientation. She lives in Seattle, where she also writes on political and cultural matters for the Seattle Times. Even before Shawl’s steampunk-flavored alternate history of the “Belgian” Congo, Everfair, took the sci-fi world by storm, her short stories had already established her as a cutting-edge black writer whose politically charged fiction is in the grand feminist tradition of Ursula Le Guin, Octavia Butler, and Joanna Russ.