Oct 19

Oct 19 All These Sunken Souls: A Black Horror Anthology-Edited by Circe Moskowitz

Continuing with my Spooky Season reading, I read another horror anthology edited by the one and only Circe Moskowitz entitled All These Sunken Souls. Like my previous read, Out There Screaming, the stories are all written by Black writers, ranging from the not too scary to leave-the-lights-on terrifying.

I first heard about this book on the app formerly known as Twitter. I followed Circe on that hell site and I stalked asked her for an advance copy. And it does not disappoint. I read the first two stories, “Lights” written by Kalynn Baron and “Be Not Afraid” written by Ashia Monet, on the subway and I had to put the book down. Both stories were terrifying and I had to prepare myself when I picked the book back up again. When I did, the rest of the stories scared me as well in different ways. One particular story succeeded in making me afraid of chicken coops, something I never thought I’d ever say in my lifetime. But that is the power of great writing.

With all of the book bannings and racist policing of books by Black authors, reading an anthology like All These Sunken Souls fills me with so much joy. The attacks on our books are meant to keep the world from knowing what we can do and imagine, but writers like Circe Moskowitz and the contributors in this anthology refuse to let that happen. Bringing such amazing writers together to tell our stories in a genre dominated by white men is a great way to break through one of the many barriers put in front of us. Stories that explore horror from a Black perspective and written with the flair and flavor that only we can add.

I really hope that Circe makes this an annual anthology because although I know it’s a lot of work to put the collection together, our stories, especially in the horror genre, need to be told as often as possible. Maybe one day, it’ll include my own story.

All These Sunken Souls is out now.

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