Shawna Ayoub moves "beyond a book review" in not only recommending great books by diverse writers but highlighting a technique to apply to your own writing.
Out There Screaming, eds. John Joseph Adams and Jordan Peele
When I learned Black American filmmaker Jordan Peele had curated a collection of short stories by Black authors, I was more than excited. I got my copy right away but found myself putting off reading it. The reason is that Peele relies on reality to craft horror, and I had a feeling the stories in this collection would do the same. I wasn’t wrong. They focus heavily on Black experience and its myriad trials to weave the frightening scenarios, whether speculative or true to life, and that serves to heighten both risk and reward in many of the pieces Peele selected.
I also knew I would want to review this collection, but I’ve been putting that off as well. Why? Racial violence is not new to me. I’m a brown woman in America. I grew up Arab and Muslim in the Bible Belt. My family was on the Klan’s radar. So revisiting stories that reimagine and escalate micro and macro aggressions against racialized bodies feels familiar in a way that’s unsettling, but I think that’s important. In fact, I think that’s a success because, as Stephen King said, fiction is the truth inside the lie, meaning the best fiction delivers truth along with a story.
Fictionalizing facts in difficult stories
I can take this a step further because I specialize in working with trauma narratives. While these aren’t necessarily “horror” stories, they share elements of horror in that their authors experienced grief or fear or other heightened, unwanted, or unexpected emotions. As with any story, the retelling of a trauma narrative need not adhere to the truth. As long as we are honest about what we’re writing (is it fiction or fact?), we’re good to go. That grants us liberty to play with the elements of our troubling stories—to craft them into something more reflective of the way they felt rather than how they unfolded. For example, a person who behaved monstrously in life could become a literal monster on the page.
Out There Screaming is a thoughtful collection of psychological horror and speculative fiction that examines the expectations of the world on Black bodies. While not every story is a star, it is a strong group of narratives that are worth the read for your edification as a writer and a global citizen. With every story, ask yourself which piece is the truth. Turn that over in your mind. Hopefully, you will have attempted the following writing prompt prior to reading. If so, return to it with new eyes.
A writing exercise
For 20 minutes, consider something that is real but feels like it should not be. You can use a moment from your life, a fact about wildlife, or current events, among other options. (Example: For me, it’s the way Surinam toads give birth. Do not look this up if you have trypophobia.) Write a story about your identified topic as though it is fictional.
As always, please check in with yourself after this exercise. How did this writing make you feel? What did you learn? Will you return to this prompt?
If this book sounds intriguing to you, consider purchasing your own copy of Out There Screaming at Bookshop.org and support independent bookstores across the U.S.
Related reading
Beyond a Book Review: Risking it all in Fault
Beyond a Book Review: Writing other languages in Vampires of El Norte
Beyond a Book Review: Uncertain futures in How High We Go in the Dark
Beyond a Book Review: Sentences as paragraphs in The Last White Man
Beyond a Book Review: Alternate futures in Womb City
Beyond a Book Review: Beginning at the End in Tomb Sweeping
Beyond a Book Review: The “What if?” of The Deep Sky
Beyond a Book Review: Grief and Hope in All We Are Told Not to Touch
Beyond a Book Review: Once Upon a Time in Dovelion
Beyond a Book Review: Narrators and Compassion in Finding La Negrita
Beyond a Book Review: Research as Connection in Through the Banks of the Red Cedar
Beyond a Book Review: Intuition in River Woman, River Demon
Beyond a Book Review: Timeline(s) in Becoming AppalAsian
Beyond a Book Review: Unwieldy Creatures and retelling our stories
Beyond a Book Review: Containers as safe spaces in Nonwhite and Woman
Beyond a Book Review: Footnotes in Belly to the Brutal
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