Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
She started writing the book in 2012.
That was true to form.
Capitalism is usually pretty predictable.
She particularly didnt want to die from H-8.
After many years spent in Detroit, brown now lives in Durham, North Carolina.
I think that science fiction is a form of organizing, and all organizing is science fiction.
While writingGrievers, I first asked myself: Who are the Black people who are writing about grief?
And it turns out most of us are.
A lot of speculative Black fiction is actually trying to figure out what to do with Black grief.
The stories are asking: How do we stay visionary?
How do we imagine that we have a future?
Before and while writing, I read Tananarive DuesAfrican Immortalsseries.
It really moved me.
JemisinsThe Broken Earthtrilogy, which came out more recently.
My main go-to is Octavia E. Butler.
This is what I wanted to offer withGrievers.
That was the impetus for this book.
What if we didnt have a choice?
What if the grief reached a point where it completely takes over?
Were in this moment right now where everything needs to change.
Dune keeps records throughout the book of everyone who has died.
Sometimes she takes pictures.
Grief can come in different shades.
Theres a moment in the book where Dune loses someone she was a caretaker for.
The complexity of that emotion felt important to include.
But Dune isnt just grieving the dead.
Holding that grief close is what pushed Dune to keep moving forward.
The Truth of the Matter
I didnt wantGrieversto feel optimistic.
I wanted it to feel realistic.
We rarely ever sit in it.
Thats something I longed for in Afrofuturist work, and I think my longing shapes this text.
The opening scene, for example, is a cremation.
When I wrote it I was like,Holy shit.
Theres no happiness inside of this moment.
That might come later, but right now, its just the labor of grief.
Its messy, and its physical, and I tried to capture it that way.
Ive never experienced grief without also feeling a powerful anger.
I felt it last year when we took to the streets and protested police violence.
How do we reclaim that time?
I think that when we see Dune at her angriest is when we see her coming alive.
