Clark was kind enough to talk with me about the music behind his new novella, the novella's long (and then fast) journey to publication, how the novella got personal, and more. You can learn more about Clark and his work by visiting his website or his blog, or by following him on twitter. When not writing, he works as an academic historian, studying comparative slavery and emancipation in the Atlantic World. His first full length novel, A Master of Djinn, was recently announced.

He is a founding member of Fiyah Literary Magazine.

His short fiction and essays have appeared in Apex Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Fireside Magazine, Fantasy Magazine, Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, and Tor.com. You can read an excerpt of Ring Shout here.Ĭlark is the Nebula, Locus, and Alex award winning, and Hugo, and World Fantasy nominated author of the novellas and short stories The Haunting of Tram Car 015, The Black Gods Drums, The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington, among many other short stories and short novels. How he managed to cram all of this into less than 200 pages is it's own magic trick. Visceral body horror, internalized hate, America's legacy of dehumanization. He makes it personal, he puts it in your face, he doesn't pull any punches. But it takes someone of Clark's skill to write Ring Shout. In prohibition Georgia, Maryse Boudreaux has a magic sword, a best friend whose a sharpshooter, and enough internal demons to keep anyone up at night.Īnyone can write a novella about a girl who kills monsters with a magical sword. And when monsters rise, so do monster hunters. The hatred they feed on, it turns them into literal monsters. The Ku Klux Klan (and it grosses me out to even type those three words) gain power and have their own plans. Griffith is a sorcerer, whose 1915 film Birth of a Nation cast a spell that forced our darkest thoughts to the surface. In this dark fantasy historical novella, the film maker D.W. Djèlí Clark's novella Ring Shout, available Oct 24th from Tor.com Publishing. I might be describing America right this second, while at the same time describing the America of 1922, of P. Standing tall and doing what you need to do.

P djeli clark ring shout