From humor to horror, the speculative fiction in Broken Fevers has a gleaming edge. This new collection by award winner Tenea D. Johnson features 14 tales. Though many are dark, they pull one through the light, if only for a moment, to visit the next vista, a new world, or this one recast in an uncertain future. Whether it be the lengths a woman will go to for performance art or how best to communicate the Middle Passage's horrors to the privileged, darkness has room to breathe here and bring wonder. Social commentary and genetic adaptation exist alongside fairy crises, alien liminalities, and the responsibilities of those holding up the world and those who communicate with the next. Broken Fevers shares the heart in the hurt, the courage in a cataclysm, and the connections that we make wherever we find ourselves.
Tenea D. Johnson's debut novel, Smoketown, won the Parallax Award. R/evolution received an honorable mention the same year. Her short work appears in anthologies like Mothership: Tales of Afrofuturism and Beyond and Sycorax's Daughters. She's performed her musical stories at venues including The Public Theater and The Knitting Factory and is the founder of Progress By Design, an arts and empowerment enterprise. Her virtual home is teneadjohnson.com. Stop by anytime.
