Thread by @Ebonyteach

Coffee & proofreading! Copyedits for #TheDarkFantastic are due in 48 hours.

Press suggested "Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games" as a subtitle. Why not "from Harry Potter to Black Panther?"

Because I'm writing another book about the Black fantastic.

One of the things my mentors told me is that it's one thing to write a lot of books. Quite another to write a book people wanna read.

The final version of #TheDarkFantastic was approved back in March. I'm not a supergenius like some of you -- my writing & thinking takes time.

I wanted Black Panther to land, have its impact, and read its aftermath & re-evaluation. I wanted to read what my colleagues in comics studies had to say about it.

I also wanted to watch the Year of YA Black Girl Fantasy, to see how audiences & critics reacted.

Finally, I needed time in order to build theory and frameworks to think about these things. In the midst of that realization, one of my former students introduced me to my agent.

And so now, I get to look at the *Black* fantastic from both sides -- as a critic & a creative.

My theory of the dark fantastic is less about creators than it is about fans and audience reaction. I hug my fellow Black critics & creators at the beginning and the end...

In the middle, I go in on all of US/UK speculative fiction. *Especially* how it positions Black girls.

But nah, my book isn't some taxonomic take on the whole of Black spec fic. That's been done. That's *being* done. I respect that work, but that is *not* my project. I'm about building theoretical frameworks for scholars coming after me, as well as lenses to see & evaluate.

I realize some will critique the project because of my focus on race in fandoms associated with billion dollar transmedia franchises, instead of theorizing (& highlighting) Black creators. That's OK.

There can be more than one book.

There need to be more of us working on this.

And like I said, that's my next project. Initially, before I realized how books like this worked, I thought I'd have three sections: 1) racism & symbolic violence in popular SFF franchises; 2) Black SFF for kids & teens! and 3) race in Black comics.

But that's 3 different books.

I doubt I'll ever write a book on Black comics. I have colleagues who do that work extremely well. I do want to carve out my space as a Black fantasist -- this is my opening salvo, but most assuredly, given life/health/strength, won't be my last book.

In the book, I distinguish the dark fantastic cycle from the Black fantastic, Afrofuturism, and multicultural fantasy.

But you don't have to wait to see where I'm coming from!

Here's a talk I did in February:

Here's an article: eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1175839