In our 60th episode, Lissa speaks with Queen of Black Horror Tananarive Due on the re-release of her 1995 debut novel The Between (Harper Perennial, 2021). Due is a leading voice in Black speculative fiction, and teaches about Black horror and Afrofuturism at UCLA where she developed a course called “The Sunken Place: Racism, Survival and The Black Horror Aesthetic.” She is also the award-winning author of numerous books and executive produced Shudder’s groundbreaking documentary Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror.
From the publisher:
THE BETWEEN follows the story of Hilton, a young boy who discovers his grandmother’s cold, dead body lying on the kitchen floor. When he returns with help, she’s alive but something just isn’t the same. The story picks up thirty years in the future—Hilton is married with kids and running a successful rehab center. But when his wife, a newly elected judge, receives racially charged threats, Hilton’s perfect life starts to flip upside down. Hilton’s nightmares return. He’s barely getting any sleep, his memories are fading, his relationships begin to fall apart. The line between reality and nightmares blurs…and Hilton’s mind begins to unravel…the reader is left to decipher how much of Hilton’s nightmares are real and how much of it is just a dream. As Hilton is faced with isolation, confusion and madness, the reader questions—what does this all have to do with Hilton’s formative years raised by his grandmother?
Episode transcript below podcast player.
Go Deeper: Additional Resources
What is Ms Due reading?:
Check out Shudder’s Horror Noire Trailer, Executive produced by Tananarive Due
The Sunken Place
We scare people for a living and would like to talk to you about Black Horror Horror Noire Executive Producer Tananarive Due and author/screenwriter Steven Barnes present a six-part digital download course on the history and power of Black Horror.Read the article on masteryplus.mykajabi.com >
Learn more about Horror Noire in her online course
Do you want to learn more about the Horror Noire genre? Read this recommendation from Ms Due:
Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from the 1890s to Present by Robin R. Means Coleman (Author). Find on the publisher website or wherever you get books.