An Earnest Blackness

In this debut collection of personal essays Eugen Bacon offers critical perspectives on blackness Afrofuturism 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 Ng?g? 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 Bacon excavates the world(s) that not only construct contemporary authorship but the fluid nature of identity itself.. AN EARNEST BLACKNESS was a finalist for the Locus Award and the British Fantasy Award in the Non-Fiction category.