A groundbreaking anthology of haunting stories by Black Canadian writers

Edited by esteemed poet Terese Mason Pierre, this bold and innovative anthology of speculative short fiction reveals and uplifts the spectacular imaginings, reveries, reflections, experiments, and hopes of Black writers in Canada. A masseuse attends her mother’s fourth funeral, only to encounter family she’s never met. A postdoc instructor navigates an almost-life in an Elsewhere realm of safety and comfort. After societal collapse, an immigrant leaves her precarious station, and her memories, behind. A woman isolating from a new virus starts hallucinating. A young nanny accepts a job with a peculiar employer in search of immortality. A medium is tasked with summoning a spirit that hits too close to home. And two teenagers test a friendship over magic carpet flying practice.

These ten breathtaking stories explore natural and urban landscapes, living and dead relationships, economic catastrophe, love, and desire—all while celebrating the persistent and ever-changing self, and envisioning beautiful Black futures.

Featuring stories by:
Trynne Delaney
francesca ekwuyasi
Whitney French
Aline-Mwezi Niyonsenga
Chimedum Ohaegbu
Suyi Davies Okungbowa
Chinelo Onwualu
Lue Palmer
Terese Mason Pierre
Zalika Reid-Benta

“Selected, edited, and skilfully situated … As the Earth Dreams packs powerful short fiction into a wide-ranging, not-so-quiet anthology of work by emerging and more established Black voices.” — Quill & Quire, STARRED Review

“As the Earth Dreams offers a distinctly Canadian vision of Black life that is as lush and expansive as it is tender and rooted.” — The Walrus

“The real treat [of As the Earth Dreams] is in realizing how much of what’s described sounds like the way we live now.” – Toronto Star

“Futuristic, parallel, and ancient—yet always deeply human.” — Literary Review of Canada

“The stories in As the Earth Dreams comprise a powerful, gracefully written, thematically varied contribution by Black Canadian writers to the documentation of their own futures.” — Ancillary Review of Books

“As the Earth Dreams is exactly as its namesake, our imagination and dreams are boundless.” — The Miramichi Reader

“A bold and innovative anthology.” — Punk Ass Book Jockey Blog

“As the Earth Dreams is an original and vibrant addition to the Canadian science fiction landscape.” — The Seaboard Review

TERESE MASON PIERRE is a Toronto-based writer and editor whose work has appeared in The Walrus, ROOM, Brick, Quill & Quire, Uncanny Magazine, and Fantasy Magazine, among others. One of ten winners of the Writers’ Trust McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize, she was named a Writers’ Trust Rising Star. Terese Mason Pierre is an editor at Augur, a Canadian journal of speculative literature, and the author of Myth (House of Anansi Press), a collection of poetry.