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Chapters (102)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Notice
  3. Dedication
  4. Map
  5. DRAMATIS PERSONAE
  6. BOOKI
  7. 1
  8. 2
  9. 3
  10. 4
  11. 5
  12. 6
  13. 7
  14. 8
  15. 9
  16. 10
  17. 11
  18. 12
  19. 13
  20. 14
  21. 15
  22. 16
  23. 17
  24. 18
  25. 19
  26. 20
  27. 21
  28. 22
  29. BOOKII
  30. 1
  31. 2
  32. 3
  33. 4
  34. 5
  35. 6
  36. 7
  37. 8
  38. 9
  39. 10
  40. 11
  41. 12
  42. 13
  43. 14
  44. 15
  45. 16
  46. 17
  47. 18
  48. 19
  49. BOOKIII
  50. 1
  51. 2
  52. 3
  53. 4
  54. 5
  55. 6
  56. 7
  57. 8
  58. 9
  59. 10
  60. 11
  61. 12
  62. 13
  63. 14
  64. 15
  65. 16
  66. 17
  67. BOOKIV
  68. 1
  69. 2
  70. 3
  71. 4
  72. 5
  73. 6
  74. 7
  75. 8
  76. 9
  77. 10
  78. 11
  79. BOOKV
  80. 1
  81. 2
  82. 3
  83. 4
  84. 5
  85. 6
  86. 7
  87. 8
  88. 9
  89. 10
  90. 11
  91. 12
  92. 13
  93. 14
  94. 15
  95. 16
  96. 17
  97. 18
  98. Glossary
  99. Acknowledgments
  100. Also by Andrea Hairston
  101. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  102. Newsletter Sign-up

kora     a large calabash harp with twenty-one strings

Kurakao     praise to the gods

Lahesh     a people from the north

Mama Zamba     Lahesh, mother’s backbone, mountains at Empire’s edge

Smokeland     a realm of vision and spirits, of possibilities and maybe-nots,

Sorit     a northern people aligned with the Anawanama

Tschupatzi     a Holy City curse

veson     Anawanama word for being, neither male nor female

Vévé     a sacred sign that calls down the power of the gods

vie     Anawanama pronoun for veson

whayoa     whoa

wim-wom     gadget, trinket, device

Xhalan Xhala     Lahesh, reckoning fire

Yidohwedo     Lahesh, rainbow serpent who made world from dung and water

Zamanzi     a people from the north

Zst     curse, Empire vernacular

Acknowledgments

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I pour libation to Eshu and the deities of the crossroads, to the Water Protectors, Animal-People, and all my Green Elders.

Thanks to my Ellis High School history teachers who let me research Nigeria, China, and the Cherokee Nation. This set me on a journey at fourteen that led to this novel.

In December 2014, I had just read that football-field swaths of Mississippi Delta wetlands disappeared every hour. People were talking about climate dystopia as inevitable. I was wondering how I could possibly respond to this without drowning in despair. Carl Engle-Laird at Tor.com Publishing invited me to write a novella, a fantasy. Thanks to Carl and my editor Ruoxi Chen who believed in the epic novel I wrote instead. Thanks to Lee Harris for making it happen the way it should. Thanks also to Pan Morigan for drawing the map of my wild visions.

At Smith College, Daphne Lamothe and Kevin Quashie and everybody in Africana Studies provided me with much-needed reality checks. My writing students and students in Shamans, Shapeshifters, and the Magic IF challenged my craft, offered me hope, and kept me sharp. Smith College’s fund for faculty development supported research trips and writing retreats.

All praises to the Smithsonian Institute, particularly the Museum of the American Indian and the Museum of African American History and Culture, for access to material culture and inspiration for the future. Grace Dillon and the folks in the Indigenous Nations Studies Program at Portland State University welcomed me and Pan Morigan into their hearts and showed us marvels.

Thanks to Bobby, Mary, and Theo Welland for giving me a home away from home in Seattle. Wolfgang and Beate Schmidhuber and the whole Schmidhuber clan offered me good food, good times, and the rest needed to create. Bill Oram read a hundred hundred drafts of this book or close to it and always typed his careful and generous responses. Paula Burkhard, Kiki Gounaridou, John Hellweg, Kathleen Mosely, Daniel José Older, Micala Sidore, and Susan Stinson cheered me on through difficult moments.

The Beyond ‘Dusa Wild Sapelonians: Pan Morigan, Ama Patterson, Liz Roberts, and Sheree R. Thomas supported my spirit, made me laugh at myself, and kept me writing the way out of no way.