Soul Food Stories: An Otherworldly Feast for the Living, the Dead, and Those Who Have Yet to Decide

by Salem West (Editor), Christel Cogneau (Editor), Anna Burke

Salem West and Christel Cogneau have assembled a powerhouse lineup of Bywater Books and Amble Press authors to explore, subvert, and reinvigorate the bountiful feast of All Hallows phantasmagoria in this stunning collection. To the living, “soul food” has a specific meaning, history, and flavor. But what does “soul food” mean to the demon, ghost, fiend, witch, spirit, or vampire? How does their ingenuity and wit rise and fall in the taking, baking, erasing, embracing, and defacing of sustenance? West and Cogneau have challenged their authors to explore these and other questions in surprising and fascinating ways. Sometimes sweet and other times terrifying, sometimes warm or otherwise demented, these stories set the table for an otherworldly feast of delight and intrigue. Let the banquet begin . . . Soul Food Stories is packed with literary confections by award-winning authors, Anna Burke, Jenn Alexander, Jacob Budenz, Virginia Black, Cathy Pegau, and Ann McMan. Featured stories “The Five Year Revenge Agency” by Anna Burke
“Tilly’s Tarts” by Jenn Alexander
“Of the Air and Land” by Jacob Budenz
“Ravenous” by Virginia Black
“In Speary Wood” by Cathy Pegau
“Perhaps You Missed My Signs” by Anna Burke
“Ghost Writer” by Ann McMan

174 pages, Paperback

Published October 24, 2023

About the author

Salem West is a corn fed overachiever from the lower Midwest, who studied hard, practiced religiously, spiked her qualifying exams, and earned a graduate degree in Public Policy from Vanderbilt. She spent more than twenty-five years managing environmental, nuclear, process safety, and security groups and contracts for a bevy of Beltway Bandits in Washington, D.C. In 2011, sanity prevailed and she retired from these pursuits to found her breakout blog, The Rainbow Reader. The blog combines homespun essays with queer-centric perspectives in book reviews that cover a wide swath of literature. In 2012, she was invited to write pre-release reviews for award-winning authors, Carol Anshaw and John Irving. Hoosier Daddy: A Heartland Romance is her first novel. At this writing, there are no pending, open, or outstanding warrants against Ms. West—a great relief to her wife, Ann McMan (Famous Author).

Reviews

[T · Rating 3 out of 5]

A couple great short stories (Ann Mcman) and a couple that hurt my brain to read. This was a toss up.