Elwin Cotman in conversation with Alex Smith: Weird Black Girls (2024)

Please join H&H in welcoming Elwin Cotman, a Pittsburgh-born speculative-fantasy author greatly inspired by the Pennsylvania weird, to celebrate the publication of his newest short story collection, Weird Black Girls (Scribner, April 2024). Elwin will be joined in conversation for a reading and signing of his book by friend and Philly-based writer, cultural arts critic, and jack of all trades, Alex Smith, author of Arkdust.

Weird Black Girls’ seven stories distinctly use unnerving magical realism to explore the beauty and terror of being Black in America. The collection is imaginative, whimsical, and horrific, which Michael Kleber-Diggs at the Minneapolis Star Tribune describes as “rich in language” and comparable to the work of Gayl Jones, Jesmyn Ward, and Percival Everett. Acclaimed author of novels such as The Swan Gondola Timothy Schaffert writes that the collection is “full of wry, fantastical twists” and “somehow rough and refined both, a brilliant mix of perversity and common sense, of the sacred and the profane.” 2018 Fellow at the Center for Fiction and author of Stories From the Tenants Downstairs, Sidik Fofana, writes indubitably, “Homeboy can write. There’s absolutely no doubt about that. And not afraid to nerd out either. With Weird Black Girls, Cotman stellarly bursts open the thread of Black space in fiction. A landmark collection!” Join us for an exciting night of spec-love!

Author Bios

Elwin Cotman was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where the post-industrial landscape greatly influenced his love for myth and adventure. He is the author of three prior collections of speculative short stories: The Jack Daniels Sessions EP, Hard Times Blues, and Dance on Saturday, which was a finalist of the Philip K. Dick Award. Cotman holds a BA from the University of Pittsburgh and an MFA from Mills College.

Alex Smith is a sci-fi writer (The Resistance web-series; Black Vans comic book), artist, musician (art-punk bands Solarized, Rainbow Crimes, avant jazz-punk band Spectral Forces), activist (Metropolarity queer sci-fi collective) and cultural/arts critic (Pitchfork, The Key, Bandcamp, Philly Gay News, Philly Artblog). He is a recipient of the Pew Fellowship in the Arts, the curator of upcoming queer cyberpunk/sci-fi anthology CY-BEAR-PUNK, and author of the sci-fi/cyberpunk/super-hero/Afrofuturist short story collection ARKDUST, published from Rosarium Publishing. Alex dreams of a better world through sight and sound and invites you to beam in and join him.

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