THE FREE PEOPLE’S VILLAGE

Sim Kern

For fans of socially-conscious sci-fi authors like R.F. Kuang and N.K. Jemisin.

Inan alternate 2020 timeline, Al Gore won the 2000 election and declared a War on Climate Change rather than a War on Terror. Green infrastructure projects have transformed U.S. cities into lush paradises (for the wealthy, white neighborhoods, at least), and the Bureau of Carbon Regulation levies carbon taxes on every financial transaction.

Maddie Ryan is a 24-year-old English teacher at a predominantly Black high school in Houston. Teaching is just a job for her; it pays the bills, and she lives for band practices with her queer punk band, Bunny Bloodlust.

When Maddie learns that the neighborhood where she teaches and her band plays is to be sacrificed for a new electromagnetic hyperway out to the suburbs, she joins a Black-led organizing movement fighting for the neighborhood. At first, she’s only focused on keeping her band together and getting closer to the band’s bassist (and her crush) Red. But working with Save the Eighth forces Maddie to reckon with the harm she has already done to the neighborhood—both as a resident of the gentrifying Lab and as a white teacher in a predominantly Black school.

When police respond to their protests with violence, the Lab becomes the epicenter of “The Free People’s Village”— an occupation that promises to be the birthplace of an anti-capitalist revolution.

In The Free People’s Village, Sim Kern dares to ask the question that many social justice minded individuals have long grappled with: When justice comes knocking, will you be brave enough to answer?

SIM KERN is a Gulf Coast author and environmental journalist. Their debut horror novella, Depart, Depart!, was selected for the Honor List for the 2020 Otherwise Award, and their short story collection, Real Sugar is Hard to Find, was hailed in a starred review by Publishers Weekly as “a searing, urgent, but still achingly tender work that will wow any reader of speculative fiction.” As a journalist, they report on petrochemical polluters and drag space billionaires. Sim spent ten years teaching English to middle and high schoolers in Houston, Texas, before shifting to writing full-time. They live near Brays Bayou with their spouse, two kids, and a very good dog.

$26.99

ISBN 978-1-64614-266-8

52699>