Members of the Sauúti Collective and co-editors of a new anthology, Eugen Bacon, Stephen Embleton and Cheryl S. Ntumy, are thrilled to announce a newly-signed contract with Bieke van Aggelen of the African Literary Agency to represent Sauúti Terrors: The Dark Side.
“We’re immensely pleased to work with Bieke and her team, comprising Martijn Lindeboom and Debbie van de Zande, on another Sauútiverse project!” said co-editors Eugen, Cheryl and Stephen jointly.
“We couldn’t have asked for anyone best to represent our newest anthology. Seeing the eerie magic and fantastical elements blended with thought-provoking science and technology, this anthology has come together frighteningly better than we expected. It’s rich with Afrocentric stories and a dosage of dark speculative poetry from maestros of the art, shaping up to something phenomenal… and terror-filled.”
“I am honoured that the collective is once again trusting the African Literary Agency with this opportunity to represent the Sauúti Terrors, following the success and visibility of Mothersound,” said Bieke van Aggelen (owner).
Mothersound: The Sauútiverse Anthology, the inaugural Sauúti anthology, edited by Wole Talabi and published by Android Press, continues to enjoy global visibility. It was announced in the “Locus Recommended Reading List” and a was finalist in the Locus and British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) Awards, with stories longlisted in the both awards, and listed on the “HWA Bram Stoker Award® Reading List”. It also has multiple stories shortlisted in the Nommo Awards for Speculative Fiction by Africans.
Mothersound editor Wole Talabi spoke of the new anthology: “From the beginning I wanted the Sauútiverse to be a creative sandbox for African and African diaspora writers. A shared world of imagination. Sauúti Terrors takes much of what was established in Mothersound and expands on it, with authors putting their own spins on them, and introducing grand new ideas that take the Sauútiverse to its darkest, most entertaining limits.”
So what’s Sauúti Terrors?
Sauúti Terrors: The Dark Side is the newest anthology, fresh in the wake of Mothersound: The Sauútiverse Anthology. There’s much to love in the Sauútiverse with its sounds, music, language, biologies and histories, but everything is not perfect in the federation of planets. From legends and folktales to inheritances, gods, ancestral spirits, sacred prey, sentient creatures, beings of unreality, sonic storms, solar flares and meteor strikes, perils infest the planets.
With 25 original stories and 11 unique pieces of dark speculative poetry, Sauúti Terrors tells of the doomed, the damned, the shunned, the cunning, the destroyers, the noxious, and more, in the worlds of the living, the in-between and the dead. Unravel the darkest stories in the deepest parts of the Sauúti five-planet system with its two suns, and orbiting a binary star.
Who’s in it?
Five-time Bram Stoker Award winner and recipient of the Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award Linda D. Addison, Caine Prize for African Writing winner Mame Bougouma Diene and other prominent speculative fiction authors, including Adelehin Ijasan, Akua Lezli Hope, Aline-Mwezi Niyonsenga, Andrew Geoffrey Kwabena Moss, Cheryl Ntumy, Chiagozie Fred Nwonwu (Mazi, co-founder and managing editor of the award-winning Omenana Magazine), Chikodili Emelumadu, Dare Segun Falowo, DaVaun Sanders (executive editor of the award-winning Fiyah Magazine), Dilman Dila, Eugen Bacon, Ishola Abdulwasiu Ayodele, Jamal Hodge, Kofi Nyameye, Jude Umeh, Mandisi Nkomo, Miguel Mitchell, Moustapha Mbacké Diop, Nerine Dorman, Osahon Ize-iyamu, Shingai Njeri Kagunda, Somto Ihezue, Stephen Embleton, T. L. Huchu, Tobi Ongundiran, Wole Talabi, and Xan van Rooyen.
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Praise for Sauúti Terrors
“Sauúti Terrors bursts at the seams with nightmares and endless possibilities. One who ventures into these tales does so at the risk of continuous delight in a unique assortment of Afrocentric worldbuilding, voices and storytelling craft.”
— Suyi Davies Okungbowa, award-winning author of Lost Ark Dreaming, Warrior of the Wind and Son of the Storm
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“Fascinating. Impressive. My goodness. This is creation. Reading these stories is actively participating in creation. Each story propelled me to read the next. I want to read everything written about these worlds. I can’t get enough of this. How does anyone write like this? The terror here is definitely the skin crawling type.”
— Makena Onjerika, Winner of the 2018 Caine Prize for African Writing
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“This latest anthology returns readers to the groundbreaking Sauútiverse—an African-centered glimpse of possible far flung futures that eerily mirror our own present and past. Once again, the Sauúti Collective—in co-editors Eugen Bacon, Cheryl S. Ntumy, Stephen Embleton—has gathered a commendable and talented set of writers who deliver fantastically imaginative stories that remind us why we fear the dark, and the unknown.”
— P. Djèli Clark, award-winning author of Ring Shout and A Master of Djinn
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