Book Deal: RDSP Signs 2nd Collection from Eugen Bacon

A Place Between Waking and Forgetting

Raw Dog Screaming Press (RDSP) is pleased to announce another exciting book deal with the award-winning and acclaimed author Eugen Bacon for her dark speculative fiction and Afro-Irreal short story collection, A Place Between Waking and Forgetting, for release in 2024.

A Place Between Waking and Forgetting collects transformative stories of culture, diversity, climate change, unlimited futures, collisions of worlds, and mythology. It showcases black people’s stories in bold and evocative text with, at times, deeply flawed, but potentially redeemable protagonists in rich hues of blackness and light. Something beautiful and something dark in lyrical language packed with affection, dread, anguish, and hope.

As with her other collected works, there are many themes to explore within her multi-genre and multi-themed body of stories. This collection neither lies only in dark fantasy or black speculative fiction, but features literary themes within the strange and bizarre, as well as the literary movements of Afro-Irrealism and Afro-Futurism.

“I had immense fun writing the stories in A Place Between Waking and Forgetting, in particular the theme story where Sherlock Holmes is a black woman, Shalok Homsi, with a child ward Watison, in a different kind of detective story set in Zanzibar,” Bacon said. “The appeal of this Afro-setting inspires yet another first-person fantastical odyssey ‘The Zanzibar Trail’ that speaks to the origins of the fictional OmniPark. The order with which one approaches the reading is of no consequence, as each tale is distinct and transitions to the next in the overarching themes of othering, betwixt, inhabitation, hauntings, and unlimited futures. I sought and found a publisher who ‘gets it’—I’m super stoked with Raw Dog Screaming Press!”

In September, RDSP published Bacon’s collection, Chasing Whispers – a unique Afro-irrealist collection of black speculative fiction in transformative stories of culture, longing, hybridity, unlimited futures, a collision of worlds and folklore. It casts a gaze at mostly women and children haunted by patriarchy, in stories packed with affection, dread, anguish and hope. The connecting theme is a black protagonist with a deep longing for someone, someplace, something.

Foreword Reviews called it an “emotive, immersive short story collection whose entries trade between being entertaining and thought provoking,” and a starred Booklist review said, “Bacon’s newest story collection makes a lasting impression, delivering unique takes on body horror, technological advances, and existential dread.”

As well, RDSP imprint Anti-Oedipus Press published her debut collection of personal essays this summer. In An Earnest Blackness, Bacon offers critical perspectives on blackness, Afro-futurism, colonialism, historicity, and (mis)recognition as she explores the untapped possibilities of speculative fiction. Using a variety of analytic, narrative, and anecdotal techniques, Bacon shares her experiences as an African Australian woman, mother, and writer who occupies a liminal space that is “betwixt” worlds and genres.

She also considers work by “other” writers—ranging from Roland Barthes and Jorge Luis Borges to Suyi Davies Okungbowa, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Toni Morrison, Octavia Butler, and Sheree Renée Thomas—in an effort to chart a path towards greater social and cultural truth. Literary, adventurous, and insightful, An Earnest Blackness excavates the world(s) that not only construct contemporary authorship but the fluid nature of identity itself.

RDSP is thrilled to be publishing such an extraordinary talent like Bacon, sure to be remembered as one of the literary greats of her time and a compelling writer in many genres as well as niche and diverse movements and aesthetics.

Eugen Bacon, Biography –

Eugen Bacon is an African Australian author of several novels and fiction collections. She’s a 2022 World Fantasy Award finalist and was announced in the honor list of the 2022 Otherwise Fellowships for ‘doing exciting work in gender and speculative fiction.’

Her books published in 2022 include Mage of Fools (novel – Meerkat Press), Chasing Whispers (collection – RDSP) and An Earnest Blackness (essays – RDSP imprint). Visit her website at eugenbacon.com and find her on Twitter as @EugenBacon.

Raw Dog Screaming Press –

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