A Phoenix First Must Burn: Sixteen Stories of Black Girl Magic, Resistance, and Hope
368A Phoenix First Must Burn: Sixteen Stories of Black Girl Magic, Resistance, and Hope
368Hardcover
-
PICK UP IN STORECheck Availability at Nearby Stores
Available within 2 business hours
Related collections and offers
Overview
With stories by: Elizabeth Acevedo, Amerie, Patrice Caldwell, Dhonielle Clayton, J. Marcelle Corrie, Somaiya Daud, Charlotte Nicole Davis, Justina Ireland, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Danny Lore, L. L. McKinney, Danielle Paige, Rebecca Roanhorse, Karen Strong, Ashley Woodfolk, and Ibi Zoboi.
Evoking Beyoncé's Lemonade for a teen audience, these authors who are truly Octavia Butler's heirs, have woven worlds to create a stunning narrative that centers Black women and gender nonconforming individuals. A Phoenix First Must Burn will take you on a journey from folktales retold to futuristic societies and everything in between. Filled with stories of love and betrayal, strength and resistance, this collection contains an array of complex and true-to-life characters in which you cannot help but see yourself reflected. Witches and scientists, sisters and lovers, priestesses and rebels: the heroines of A Phoenix First Must Burn shine brightly. You will never forget them.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781984835659 |
---|---|
Publisher: | Penguin Young Readers Group |
Publication date: | 03/10/2020 |
Pages: | 368 |
Sales rank: | 704,484 |
Product dimensions: | 5.90(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.40(d) |
Age Range: | 12 - 17 Years |
About the Author
In 2018, she was named a Publishers Weekly Star Watch honoree and featured on The Writer's Digest podcast, PBS's MetroFocus, and Bustle's inaugural "Lit List" as one of ten women changing the book world.
She currently lives in New York City in an apartment overflowing with tea and books and is obsessed with purple lipstick. Visit her online at patricecaldwell.com, Twitter @whimsicallyours, and Instagram @whimsicalaquarian.
Read an Excerpt
Introduction
Patrice Caldwell
When I was fourteen, a family friend gifted me a copy of Octavia Butler’s Wild Seed. I still remember that moment. The Black woman on the front cover. The used-paperback smell. The way I held it close like it carried within it the secrets of many universes.
I devoured it and all of her others. I found myself in her words. And I’m not the only one.
It seems only fitting that the title of this anthology comes from Butler’s Parable of the Talents, a novel that is ever relevant.
The full quote is “In order to rise from its own ashes, a phoenix first must burn.”
Storytelling is the backbone of my community. It is in my blood.
My parents raised me on stories of real-life legends like Queen Nzinga of Angola, Harriet Tubman, Phillis Wheatley, and Angela Davis. Growing up in the American South, my world was full of stories, of traditions and superstitions—like eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day for luck or “jumping the broom” on your wedding day. Raised on a diet of Twilight Zone, Star Trek, and Star Wars, I preferred creating and exploring fictional universes to living in my real one.
But whenever I went to the children’s section of the library to discover more tales, the novels featuring characters who looked like me were, more often than not, rooted in pain set amid slavery, sharecropping, or segregation. Those narratives are important, yes. But because they were the only ones offered, I started to wonder, Where is my fantasy, my future? Why don’t Black people exist in speculative worlds?
Too often media focuses on our suffering. Too often we are portrayed as victims. But in reality, we advocate for and save ourselves long before anyone else does, from heroes my parents taught me of to recent ones like Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, the Black women who founded Black Lives Matter.
Malcolm X said, “The most neglected person in America is the Black Woman.” I believe this is even more true for my fellow queer siblings, and especially for those identifying as trans and as gender nonconforming. We are constantly under attack.
And yet still we rise from our own ashes.
We never accept no.
With each rebirth comes a new strength.
Black women are phoenixes.
We are given lemons and make lemonade.
So are the characters featured in this collection of stories.
These sixteen stories highlight Black culture, folktales, strength, beauty, bravery, resistance, magic, and hope. They will take you from a ship carrying teens who are Earth’s final hope for salvation to the rugged wilderness of New Mexico’s frontier. They will introduce you to a revenge-seeking hairstylist, a sorcerer’s apprentice, and a girl whose heart is turning to ash. And they will transport you to a future where all outcomes can be predicted by the newest tech, even matters of the heart.
Though some of these stories contain sorrow, they ultimately are full of hope. Sometimes you have to shed who you were to become who you are.
As my parents used to remind me, Black people have our pain, but our futures are limitless.
Let us, together, embrace our power.
Let us create our own worlds.
Let us thrive.
And so our story begins . . .
Table of Contents
Introduction Patrice Caldwell 1
When Life Hands you a Lemon Fruitbomb Amerie 4
Gilded Elizabeth Acevedo 30
Wherein Abigail Fields Recalls her First Death and, Subsequently, her Best Life Rebecca Roanhorse 51
The Rules of the Land Alaya Dawn Johnson 67
A Hagiography of Starlight Somaiya Daud 85
Melie Justina Iceland 105
The Goddess Provides L.L. McKinney 132
Hearts Turned to Ash Dhonielle Clayton 155
Letting the Right One in Patrice Caldwell 180
Tender-Headed Danny Lore 202
Kiss the Sun Ibi Zoboi 220
The Actress Danielle Paige 246
The Curse of Love Ashley Woodfolk 269
All the Time in the World Charlotte Nicole Davis 282
The Witch's Skin Karen Strong 298
Sequence J. Marcelle Corrie 318
A Note from the Editor 339
About the Contributors 343
Acknowledgments 352
Discussion Questions 356