Here in the (Middle) of Nowhere

Anastacia-Renee

Book cover for Here in the (Middle) of Nowhere
Book cover for Here in the (Middle) of Nowhere

Here in the (Middle) of Nowhere

Here in the (Middle) of Nowhere

Anastacia-Renee

Member Benefits

  • 40% Off All Books - Savings that support storytellers, not stock prices.
  • Fight Book Bans - Every membership sends a book to LGBTQ+ youth in affected states.
Member Book Price
$17.99 $1.00
View full details

Description

In this bold hybrid collection of poetry, flash fiction, and Afrofuturism sci-fi, the award-winning interdisciplinary writer and author of Side Notes from the Archivist explores what happens when god is a Black woman in a town. What happens when there are multiple universes in the middle of nowhere?

And what if in each universe there reigned other Black woman gods? One million versions of god, and one million saints to watch over us? And what if this Black woman god were placed here on earth?

These are just a few of the questions Anastacia-ReneƩ asks in this daring and mind-bending hybrid collection. Hers is a universe of striking variety--monsters, nontraditional saints, witches, zombies, the couple in the apartment next door, the wise elders from down the block, and gods watching over us all--as well as community and connectedness.

With a prose storyline and characters that connect through family, time, and place, Anastacia-ReneƩ paints world(s) rich with wonder and the paranormal as she peers into the lives of everyday people and spectacular creatures inhabiting not just our neighborhoods, but other dimensions. Here in the (Middle) of Nowhere is about interstellar ancestry, community and spirituality. It is about the things we invoke, conjure, and rely on to maintain joy as we keep it moving through difficult eras. Anastacia-ReneƩ's power imbues her spellbinding storytelling with lovingly rendered characters brought to life in lyrical poetry. She builds worlds within worlds and dares us to fully see and love ourselves in all our complexity.



Critical Reviews

"In Anastacia-ReneƩ's hands, everything 'above & below & in the middle' is teeming with life--stretching beyond the margin--vintage and young at the same time. A gumbo both peaceful and pleasureful and impossibly wrought with the pain of context and intention. The poems of everything, everywhere, all at once. And ain't that the Blackest, most alive thing to behold?" -- Aurielle Marie, author of Gumbo Ya Ya

"The poetic verve that Anastacia-ReneƩ has brought to Side Notes from the Archivist is now brought beautifully and vividly to bear in Here in the (Middle) of Nowhere. This is conjure prose, passages and stories invoking ancestral voices, voices layered, down deep and up soaring, longing, loving, living and not living . . . This is bold invocation. You've been called."
-- Rick Simonson, Elliott Bay Book Company

"Anastacia-ReneƩ's extraordinary, intriguing, afrofuturistic, and mystical collection explores family, community, grief, and love." -- Booklist

"An exploration of the mystic within community, told through poetry and flash fiction... Best when read aloud, this narrative can be taken in small quantities as individual narrators tell their stories or taken as one whole, greater than the many stories contained within." -- Kirkus Reviews

ReneƩ's poetry and flash fiction runs the whole emotional gamut. . . What comes from all of these stories, bound together by lucile and her sisters, is a sense of community saturated with tenderness, disappointment, pain and happiness. It's marvellous." -- Locus

Publishing Information

Publisher: Amistad Press
Pub date: 2024-03-12
Length: 144 pages

The Allstora Membership

Membership Perks:

  • Save 30% on all online store purchases
  • Exclusive access to author's content
  • You pay less, but authors still earn double

Membership Terms:

First Month: $0.00
Monthly price: $5.00
  • To access membership discount simply log in and add to cart, discount applied automatically.
  • One month free trial, cancel anytime. Membership renews on the 15th of each month.