a couple relying on high-tech pleasure suits to mask their emotional distance is forced to finally communicate when their overcharged suits manifest as an electrostatic entity.

If He Hollars, Let Him Go by Chester Himes

A novel that explores racial tensions and the psychological impact of systemic oppression in 1960s America through the eyes of its African American protagonist.

The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle

A reimagining of H.P. Lovecraft's story, it explores themes of race and cosmic horror through the lens of an African American protagonist.

Skin Folk: Fisherman by Nalo Hopkinson

K.C., a person living and passing as a man in a Caribbean town, experiences a transformative first sexual encounter with Mary Anne, the madam of a whorehouse, which helps K.C. find comfort and self-acceptance.

Skin Folk: Money Tree by Nalo Hopkinson

story about a woman who must save her brother after his consuming greed leads him to hunt for sunken pirate treasure guarded by a sea monster.

Skin Folk: The Glass Bottle Trick by Nalo Hopkinson

a pregnant young woman named Beatrice discovers that her color-obsessed, abusive husband Samuel has previously murdered his light-skinned wives and trapped ghosts

Skin Folk: Greedy Choke Puppy by Nalo Hopkinson

a young university student named Jacky and her grandmother—both of whom are soucouyants—as Jacky’s destructive bloodlust and obsession with consumption lead to her grandmother destroying her skin shell to stop her

Playing in the Dark by Toni Morrison

American literary canon is deeply shaped by an invented "Africanist" presence, using a shadow of blackness to define white American identity, freedom, and self-conception.

House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe

in a gloomy, decaying mansion, where Roderick's cataleptic twin sister Madeline is prematurely buried alive and escapes, causing both siblings to die as the house splits apart and sinks into the lake.

Hop-Frog by Edgar Allen Po

mistreated dwarf jester exacts lethal revenge during a masquerade ball by tricking an abusive king and his seven ministers into wearing flammable tar-and-flax orangutan costumes, hoisting them to the ceiling, setting them on fire, and escaping with his friend Trippetta

The Horror at Red Hook by H.P Lovecraft

a New York police detective named investigates a dark criminal underworld and occult cult centered around a reclusive scholar named Robert Suydam in the immigrant-dense neighborhood

Conjure Tales and Stories of the Color Line: Po’ Sandy by Charles Chesnutt

an enslaved man is turned into a pine tree by his wife Tenie using magic to escape separation, only to be cut down and milled into lumber for a kitchen, leaving his spirit trapped in the wood

Conjure Tales and Stories of the Color Line: Dave’s Necklace by Charles Chesnutt

a gentle-hearted enslaved man driven to psychological breakdown and tragic suicide after being falsely accused of stealing a ham and forced to wear it around his neck as a humiliating public punishment

Narrative of a Life of an American Slave by Frederick Douglass

recounts his uncertain birth and early childhood, detailing how his master, Captain Anthony, brutally whipped his family member while he hid in the closet

Skin Folk: Ganger (Ball Lightning) by Nalo Hopkinson

a couple relying on high-tech pleasure suits to mask their emotional distance is forced to finally communicate when their overcharged suits manifest as an electrostatic entity.