Sheree Renée Thomas is an award-winning fiction writer, poet, and editor. Her work is inspired by myth and folklore, natural science and Mississippi Delta conjure. Nine Bar Blues: Stories from an Ancient Future (Third Man Books) is her first all prose collection. She is the author of the Marvel novel adaptation of the legendary comics Black Panther: Panther's Rage (Titan Books). She edited the World Fantasy-winning groundbreaking black speculative fiction anthologies, Dark Matter (2000 and 2004) and is the first to introduce W.E.B. Du Bois's science fiction short stories. She is the Associate Editor of the historic Black arts literary journal, Obsidian: Literature & the Arts in the African Diaspora and is the Editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. She is a Marvel writer and contributor to the groundbreaking anthology, Black Panther: Tales of Wakanda edited by Jesse J. Holland. She lives in her hometown, Memphis, Tennessee near a mighty river and a pyramid.

Lesley Conner is the Editor of Apex Magazine and has co-edited several anthologies with Jason Sizemore, including Do Not Go Quietly, Robotic Ambitions, and Apex Magazine: 2021. She lives in Maryland with her family, including two adorable dogs named Oz and Pax. You can follow her online via X @lesleyconner.

The Map of Lost Places by Sheree Renée Thomas and Lesley Conner

A travel guide to hauntings and the haunted, to lands with their own power, and to the communities that spring from these strange realms.

In your hands is a travel guide to the strange and surreal. From arcades along a boardwalk and jetties at the edges of tourist towns, to a rural village in Pakistan and hollows hidden deep within a forest in Pennsylvania, strange things can happen no matter where you are. You can become lost in a city crowded with people, haunted within your own home, and slip from one reality into another in the space of a step.

With twenty-two stories by authors such as Brian Keene, Maurice Broaddus, Ai Jiang, Samit Basu, and KS Walker, editors Sheree Renée Thomas and Lesley Conner take readers on a tour of places where weird things happen. Places where ghosts are real, old gods are hungry, and towns are not as idyllic as they appear to be.

Welcome to The Map of Lost Places. Enter at your own risk.

CURATOR'S NOTE

A terrific anthology of stories set around the world! – Lavie Tidhar

 

REVIEWS

  • "In The Map of Lost Places, Sheree Renée Thomas and Lesley Conner have mapped out a disturbingly unique trip into horror. Featuring stories from both classic authors and up-and-coming writers, this anthology rips apart familiar tropes to reveal terrifying new looks at our world that will shake readers to their core."

    – Jason Sanford, author of Plague Birds, finalist for the Nebula and Philip K. Dick Awards
 

BOOK PREVIEW

Excerpt

From: "Girlboss in Wonderworld, USA" by Vivian Chou

Location: Seaside City, Delaware, USA

Population: 2,402

My brother Terence and I stand in front of the Wonderworld arcade counter, our eyes as big as Skee-balls.

"Two hundred and eighty tickets," the teenage girl says. "What would you like?"

I stare through the glass at Chinese finger handcuffs and an orange slime ball, either of which I could get, and sigh. "The s'mores Squishmallow keychain is three hundred tickets, but it's time to go and I'm outta quarters."

"Sorry, Jules," Terence says, squeezing my arm. "I didn't know, or I woulda saved some tickets for you." Terence's horse derby racing skills just slay.

"It's okay," I say. I stand up on my tippy toes and look up at the clerk. "I'll have the slime ball."

The girl looks at me and smiles. "What's your name?" She wears her hair in one long dirty blonde braid that curves around her neck. On the top corner of bright orange Wonderworld shirt is a black nametag that reads GERTRUDE. I think of that as an old person's name, but my friend Ellie's baby sister just got named Mildred, so maybe not.

"I'm Julie Chen," I say.

Gertrude leans down and whispers, "I can give you the s'mores keychain, Julie Chen, but you have to give me something of yours." She smells like raspberry Bath and Body Works glitter bath gel, and I admire her Totoro earrings.

A thrill rises in me. People tell me all the time I'm cute because I'm ten. Maybe I remind her of a kid she babysat once.

"I don't have anything," I say, turning out my pockets and finding a gum wrapper and dirty tissues. I pull my thick black hair out of my ponytail. "Do you want this? I just got it last week." I hold out my pink and purple striped scrunchie.

"Nah. Just give me an eyelash," Gertrude says, unblinking.

I flinch and don't know whether to laugh at the joke or pluck one out. Is she crazy?

"I don't know how to give you an eyelash," I say. I look to my side. Terence has drifted towards the Connect 4 hoops game to watch some teenagers shoot basketballs.

"I can pluck one and you won't even notice, I promise," Gertrude says.

"Okay," I say, and before I can ask what to do next, she pockets an eyelash in her black fanny pack and hands me a s'mores Squishmallow keychain. She's right: I don't feel a thing. The keychain has a small card attached to the product tag. In an old-timey font, it reads:

ONE BRIGHT FUTURE

"Hey, Jules," Terence appears, glancing down at my new prize. "Oh, you got one. Cool!" He looks up at Gertrude and smiles.

I clutch the s'mores keychain in my hand. Pride surges through me and I stand up straighter. Gertrude zips to the end of the counter to help another girl, and we walk out to the Delaware boardwalk.