Tripping the Tale Fantastic

From haunted Civil War battlefields to a severed ear discovered on a nightly run; from lab-grown dinosaurs to forest creatures that steal away children under the cover of night; from deadly bio-engineered fleas to a burning teenage desire for cybernetic amputations: Deaf and hard of hearing authors from around the world bring you this fun, though oftentimes disturbing, collection of short fiction.So often the future we imagine is homogenous: everyone has the same baseline abilities and there is a presumption that all five senses are the norm. This collection has stories of people accessing new technologies, and people living in worlds where to hear is to be abnormal. There are stories that explore the imposition of language values on the Deaf community and the harm committed in the name of 'help.' And there are stories in which we get to experience how others communicate. A thought-provoking collection. -Farah Mendlesohn, author of Rhetorics of FantasyEven for someone like myself-a hearing person who has long been around the Deaf community-this anthology often gives insight into a series of deaf characters in a way perhaps no hearing writer ever could, from reading the innermost thoughts from a Deaf perspective in thriller/horror to science fiction and fantasy, and every genre in between, whether it's 'The Ear,' which interestingly recalls the old radio drama Suspense or the more chilling 'In the Haunted Darkness,' which puts into words the feelings of likely more than a few people, sadly. More importantly, those stories without a deaf character highlight the most crucial takeaway: a deaf writer can world-build and set scenes as well as anyone. -Dave Galanter, author of Troublesome MindsContributors include Kris Ashton, John Lee Clark, Michael R. Collings, Willy Conley, Bobby Cox, Daniel Crosby, Marsha Graham, Kristen Harmon, Lilah Katcher, David Langford, Raymond Luczak, A. M. Matte, Brighid Meredith, Kristen Ringman, Maverick Smith, Tonya Marie Stremlau, Jacob Waring, Joanne Yee, and Kelsey M. Young.Christopher Jon Heuer is the author of two books. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia.