Love after the End

August 17, 2020
This visionary anthology edited by Lambda Literary Award winner Whitehead (Jonny Appleseed) brings together a group of Indigenous voices from across North America to explore the aftermaths of apocalypses both global and personal. Ranging from imaginative science fantasy to plausible near-future speculative fiction, these nine stories are thematically unified by their queer visions of Indigenous futures. Standouts include “History of the New World” by Adam Garnet Jones, an emotionally resonant story that grapples with generational trauma and parenthood; “How to Survive the Apocalypse for Native Girls” by Kai Minosh Pyle, which explores the exclusion implicit in the concept of kinship; and the refreshingly conversational “Story for a Bottle” by Darcie Little Badger, in which a teenage protagonist must escape from an abandoned, floating city powered by artificial intelligence. Many of the stories offer portraits of a dead Earth from which new life springs, and all are ultimately uplifting, hinting at a way forward through the darkness of the present. Drawing on deep wells of history and experience, these powerful stories are sure to impress.