The Speculative in Full Color: A Collection

"The Speculative in Full Color" explores the existence of a two-part problem: one, that speculative fiction is not widely regarded in the academic space and two, that minority voices are notably absent from the genre as well. While speculative fiction is a difficult genre to define, and most speculative works are categorized by their subgenres, it remains worth noting that there are valuable lessons to be gained from both an analysis and craft perspective of these works. Moreover, minority writers must be freed of constraint. This constraint most often manifests in the expectation that their stories must be "revealing" of their respective minority group, achieved most often through trauma narratives. However, freedom would allow them to explore worlds of their own creation without needing to "capitalize" on their identity. This collection features four short stories that explore a variety of speculative fiction concepts - gothic horror and steampunk, to name a few - and feature Black characters at the forefront. Moreover, the collection discusses how characteristics typically attributed to literary fiction such as psychological character analysis are also present in speculative fiction and can be used to build complex, fantastical narratives. The stories in the collection include: "Glass Dinner," "The Grandfather," "Welcome to Nowhere," and "The Roommates."