Odes to Black Women: Short Stories

Two short story collections explore the everyday lives of Black girls, women, and nonbinary characters. Set in and around a working-class town outside of New York City, All This Want (And I Can't Get None) by T Clark excavates the hunger and pleasure of Black girlhood and queer coming-of-age. Set in the American South, Desperate Bodies by Lydia Mathis depicts the fragility, strength, and unruliness of Black women’s and girls’ bodies and the power in being honest about their desires. These writers will delve into what short stories mean to them and how the form embodies and captures their characters’ emotions. 

Purchase your book from Charis Books & More. When you check-out from that link, please mention that you will need to pick your book up at the event. Books will also be for sale on-site by Charis, and a portion of your purchase will benefit the Decatur Book Festival.

This event is free and open to the public. No tickets are required, and seating is first come, first served. Signing information: Signing time: 2:45 PM

Signing location: Marriott Conference Center

About the Authors

T Clark is from Westchester County, New York. They received BAs in sociology and English from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, and an MFA in fiction from Indiana University in Bloomington. They were the recipient of a Writer in the World fellowship in Nepal, a Ross Lockridge Jr. Award in Fiction, a Newport News Public Library short story award, and a Mitchell Adelman Memorial Scholarship for Creative Writing. They have received support and fellowships from Art Omi, formerly Omi International Arts Center, in Ghent, NY; the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown; the Lambda Literary Foundation; the Elizabeth George Foundation; the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing; and the Vermont Studio Center. Their fiction has appeared in Joyland Magazine, The Kenyon Review, American Short Fiction, The Offing, Fourteen Hills, and elsewhere. They teach and write in New Orleans. Their new book is All This Want (And I Can't Get None).

Lydia Mathis has an MFA in fiction from New York University. She is the recipient of A Public Space’s 2023 Editorial Fellowship and is currently an assistant editor at A Public Space. She has stories published in North American Review, Southeast Review, Torch Magazine, Stanchion, Five on the Fifth, and oranges journal. She joins us with her book Desperate Bodies.

About the Moderator

Susana Morris is a professor of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech. She has been an Anschutz Distinguished Fellow at Princeton University and was most recently the Norman Freeling Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan. She is the author of Close Kin and Distant Relatives: The Paradox of Respectability in Black Women’s Literature, co-editor of The Crunk Feminist Collection, and co-author of the young adult handbook Feminist AF: The Guide to Crushing Girlhood. She is the co-founder of The Crunk Feminist Collective and has written for Gawker, Long Reads, Cosmopolitan and Ebony, and has also been featured on NPR and the BBC, and in The Atlantic, Book Page, Essence, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. Her most recent book is Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler.