New Elwin Cotman: Weird Black Girls

Mon 15 Apr 2024 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Weird Black Girls cover Good news for short story readers: Elwin Cotman’s new collection Weird Black Girls comes out tomorrow from Scribner. WBG has seven stories, including the long title story, which go deep and wide into weird and, to keep you on your toes, not-so-weird places. Kirkus Reviews not only gave it a starred review (and called it “spendidly strange”) but also — knowing that you personally, you enthusiast, read about 240 books per year — included it in a list of 20 Best Books to Read in April.

Michael Kleber-Diggs, in the Star-Tribune, captures what I love about Elwin’s writing — not knowing what’s coming next and it being both deeply imaginative as well as feeling grounded — and this new collection:

Weird Black Girls is an exceptional work of magical realism. As Cotman hops effortlessly from year to year and city to city, seeing each age and place distinctly and well, his stories remain of another world.

They are imaginative places where readers are always one sentence away from something unexpected. They’re also grounded in sharp, concise truths that illuminate moments and generations. Impossible occurrences coexist naturally with real life in a very real America where weird things seem to be happening a lot lately.

Elwin’s going to on tour so I hope you can catch him reading in San Francisco, LA,DC, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Providence, and New York. Don’t miss his City Lights launch event with Lisa D. Gray either live or on Zoom tomorrow night at 7 p.m. PST.