Stories to Sing in the Dark by Matthew Bright
Trade paperback format.
Introduction by Christopher Barzak
The speculative shines bright in the dark with these stories by Matthew Bright: a boy with a secret begins work at a strange library housing all the books never written; Dorian Gray's love of beauty struggles in the face of AIDs-era San Francisco and the Castro; the tomb of the Empress is adrift in space and hungry for the concubines aboard her; two men in an old film finally realize that they are trapped but still they seek the means for finally declaring their love for each other. These and other tales of the queer fantastic should be the perfect bedtime read. A finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Speculative Fiction!
Cover design by Inkspiral.
"Bright’s work will enchant readers of dark speculative fiction who seek brighter futures for characters who have often been marginalized." - Publishers Weekly
“Matt Bright’s writing can be brave, frivolous and audacious all at once. This book is full of mystery, metafiction, cannibalism, glamour, squalour, strangeness, sexy stuff and magic. It’s a book in which Badger and Toad, Jean Genet and Dorian Gray go jostling along together, pursued by the seductive and murderous Mr Text and Mr Subtext on the back of a robot camel or aboard a glass-bottomed bordello steaming down the Nile. Reading these stories is like being in a wonderful kind of dream.” - Paul Magrs, author of the Brenda and Effie Mysteries
"Stories to Sing in the Dark is a heady—and welcome—mix of the dark, the twisted, the strange, and most importantly the queer, but the tune it offers works to perfection: it doesn’t overwhelm, doesn’t leave the reader hopeless, and hooks you back for more after each tale. Nothing is safe from Bright’s distortive lens: holiday classics, childhood tales, literary greats, and thank all the gods for that. Between retellings and new tales, Bright’s threads of the other—be they spirit, steam, or futuristic—have crafted tales well worthy of their addition to the speculative fiction canon, and I for one couldn’t wait any longer to cheer their arrival." - 'Nathan Burgoine, author and finalist for the Lambda Literary and Aurora Awards