Los Angeles, 1948: Easy Rawlins is a black war veteran just fired from his job at a defense plant. Easy is drinking in a friend's bar, wondering how he'll meet his mortgage, when a white man in a linen suit walks in, offering good money if Easy will simply locate Miss Daphne Money, a blonde beauty known to frequent black jazz clubs....

This volume introduces black science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction writers to the generations of readers who have not had the chance to explore the scope and diversity among African-American writers.


Fiction.
Sister Lilith - Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
The Comet - W.E.B. Du Bois
Chicage 1927 - Jewelle Gomez
Black No More (novel excerpt) - George S. Schuyler
separation anxiety - Evie Shockley
Tasting Songs - Leone Ross
Can You Wear My Eyes - Kalamu ya Salaam
Like Daughter - Tananarive Due
Greedy Choke Puppy - Nalo Hopkinson
Rhythm Travel - Amiri Baraka
Buddy Bolden - Kalamu ya Salaam
Aye, and Gomorrah... - Samuel R. Delany
Ganger (Ball Lightning) - Nalo Hopkinson
The Becoming - Akua Lezli Hope
The Goophered Grapevine - Charles W. Chestnutt
The Evening and the Morning and the Night - Octavia E. Butler
Twice, at Once, Separated - Linda Addison
Gimmile's Songs - Charles R. Saunders
At the Huts of Ajala - Nisi Shawl
The Woman in the Wall - Steven Barnes
Ark of Bones - Henry Dumas
Butta's Backyard Barbecue - Tony Medina
Future Christmas (novel excerpt) - Ishmael Reed
At Life's Limits - Kiini Ibura Salaam
The African Origins of UFOs (novel excerpt) - Anthony Joseph
The Astral Visitor Delta Blues - Robert Fleming
The Space Traders - Derrick Bell
The Pretended - Darryl A. Smith
Hussy Strutt - Ama Patterson

Essays.
Racism and Science Fiction - Samuel R. Delany
Why Blacks Should Read (and Write) Science Fiction - Charles R. Saunders
Black to the Future - Walter Mosley
Yet Do I Wonder - Paul D. Miller
The Monophobic Response - Octavia E. Butler

Dark Matter: Reading the Bones is a second diverse anthology of science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction by an array of African-American authors includes both original works and previously published short fiction.

Dark Matter is the first and only series to bring together the works of black SF and fantasy writers. The first volume, Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora, was featured in the "New York Times", which named it a Notable Book of the Year.

Contents
Introduction (Dark Matter: Reading the Bones) • essay by Sheree Renée Thomas [as by Sheree R. Thomas]
Ibo Landing (1998) / short story by Ihsan Bracy
The Quality of Sand / short story by Cherene Sherrard
Yahimba's Choice [Dossouye] / short story by Charles R. Saunders
The Glass Bottle Trick (2000) / short story by Nalo Hopkinson
Desire / short story by Kiini Ibura Salaam
Recovery from a Fall / short story by David Findlay
Anansi Meets Peter Parker at the Taco Bell on Lexington (2000) / short story by Douglas Kearney
The Magical Negro / short story by Nnedi Okorafor [as by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu]
Jesus Christ in Texas (1920) / short story by W. E. B. Du Bois
Will the Circle Be Unbroken? (1974) / short story by Henry Dumas
'Cause Harlem Needs Heroes / short story by Kevin Brockenbrough
Whipping Boy / short story by Pam Noles
Old Flesh Song / short story by Ibi Zoboi [as by Ibi Aanu Zoboi]
Whispers in the Dark (2001) / novelette by Walter Mosley
Aftermoon / short story by Tananarive Due
Voodoo Vincent and the Astrostoriograms / short story by Tyehimba Jess
The Binary / short story by John Cooley
BLACKout / short story by Jill Robinson
Sweet Dreams / short story by Charles Johnson
Buying Primo Time / short story by Wanda Coleman
Corona (1967) / short story by Samuel R. Delany
Maggies / short story by Nisi Shawl
Excerpt from Mindscape / short story by Andrea Hairston
Trance / short story by Kalamu ya Salaam
The Second Law of Thermodynamics • essay by Jewelle Gomez
Her Pen Could Fly: Remembering Virginia Hamilton • essay by Nnedi Okorafor [as by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu]
Celebrating the Alien: The Politics of Race and Species in the Juveniles of Andre Norton • essay by Carol Cooper
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