NB-37-30_789We are all readers in our merry band, and some of us are writers too; but it doesn’t often happen that we have a writer join us with copies of her work in hand. This past meeting happened to coincide with the release of a new anthology titled LONG HIDDEN: Speculative Fiction From the Margins of History, and one of the authors in the anthology happens to be a member of our group and came with us on our recent visit to Central Park.

So here’s another first: as long-time readers of our site know, we never use our members’ names on here, to afford everyone a bit of privacy/anonymity. But Nicolette Barischoff has given us her blessing to share hers, which we do so that you can look up her story, “A Wedding In Hungry Days.” We couldn’t recommend it more highly.

The rest of the book is worth a read, too. Here’s how the editors describe their mission: “Most written chronicles of history, and most speculative stories, put rulers, conquerors, and invaders front and center. People with less power, money, or status—enslaved people, indigenous people, people of color, queer people, laborers, women, people with disabilities, the very young and very old, and religious minorities, among others—are relegated to the margins. Today, mainstream history continues to perpetuate one-sided versions of the past while mistelling or erasing the stories of the rest of the world. There is a long and honorable legacy of literary resistance to erasure. This anthology partakes of that legacy. It will feature stories from the margins of speculative history, each taking place between 1400 and the early 1900s and putting a speculative twist—an element of science fiction, fantasy, horror, or the unclassifiably strange—on real past events.”

As you might imagine, we too believe in casting light on that which has long been hidden.

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