Trouble the Waters

November 1, 2021
This ambitious anthology of 33 stories and poems aims to “evoke water in its myriad moods and modes,” and lays out an intriguing sampling of SFF subgenres. Kate Heartfield offers the medieval fantasy “Lilies and Claws.” Marie Vibbert delivers a space opera about an alien whale singer in “Juniper’s Song,” and editor Thomas imagines a disco-era siren in “Love Hangover.” Many focus on human relationships with aquatic, humanoid shape-shifters, among them Christopher Caldwell’s gender-bending “Deep Like the Rivers,” Shawn Scarber’s Southern gothic fairy tale, “At the Opening of Bayou St. John,” Lyndsay E. Gilbert’s Bluebeard retelling, “The Half-Drowned Castle,” Cecilia Quirk’s queer selkie story “The Weaver’s Tale,” and Rion Amilcar Scott and Jamey Hatley’s interlinked tales of woe and water women, “Numbers” and “Spirits Don’t Cross over Water ’Til They Do.” There are several entries, however, that seem only tangentially relevant to the theme, among them Andrea Hairston’s “Seven Generations Algorithm” and Mateo Hinojosa’s “Portal.” Though readers will be stumped by the inclusion of some of these pieces, the looseness of the organizational schema allows for wide variety. Not every piece will be a hit with every reader, but the diversity of contributors and contributions means that anyone can find something to enjoy.

November 1, 2021
In this collection of short stories from all over the world, authors explore the legends, folklore, and rich possibilities around water. They tell of selkies, mermaids, sirens, serpents; they write of water as life, as resource, as need, as nourishment, as dangerous. Thirty-three stories fill this collection's vibrant pages: a woman falls for a local man's selkie wife in "The Weaver's Tale," by Cecilia Quirk; Lyndsay E. Gilbert gives us a rich subversion of the Bluebeard story in "The Half-Drowned Castle"; adrienne maree brown presents ""Call the Water,"" a tale of revolution as one woman rebels against the state's attempt to control her city's water. The tales are creative and vary widely across genre and tone, from the wild darkness of Sheree Ren�e Thomas' "Love Hangover," where a man dances with a dangerous, seductive woman of wings and teeth at the height of disco, to Betsy Phillips' entertaining "Mother of Crawdads," where our narrator's sister has married a creek that risks being filled. The collection is compelling and full of inventive stories.

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