BRAND-NEW STORIES BY: Tiphanie Yanique, Richard Georges, Johanna Gibson, Eugenia O'Neal, Celeste Rita Baker, Nisha Khiani Savara, Sophia Aubin, Cadwell Turnbull, Rea Vanterpool, Vincent Omni, Traci O'Dea, Tobias S. Buckell, Gillian Royes, Hadiya Sewer, and Raven Phillips. FROM THE INTRODUCTION BY TIPHANIE YANIQUE & RICHARD GEORGES: 'The writers here represent the greater Virgin Islands, made up of the territories separated, by colonialism, into the British Virgin Islands and the United States Virgin Islands. In sidestepping this political distinction, we honor both the everyday experiences of Virgin Islanders as well as the creative possibilities of fiction. Most Virgin Islanders who are native (in the US parlance) or belongers (in the British parlance) have family ties across these national borders anyway. Many Virgin Islanders are both natives and belongers. Some work in one territory and reside in another. Then there are those who live and work on the water that connects all the islands . . . The VI is made up of about a hundred islands, so we have always been home to both journeyers and newcomers . . . 'Virgin Islanders keep our secrets close-especially the darker ones. We want to ensure we make a good impression-especially if our livelihoods depend on it, which they often do in a tourism economy. For us, Virgin Islands Noir is a major anthology-one of the first to likely reach beyond the islands themselves. But the Virgin Islands is a place literally named for an innocence fearful of exploitation, so it was initially discomforting to many of the writers here that this vision of us would be in noir-a literary genre that highlights crime and bleakness. Over a number of years, the editors charged the storytellers here to write real. It's true that sometimes we are the innocent virgins of St. Ursula's pilgrimage, as Christopher Columbus named us. But one way to claim you exist as a fully complex humanity is to admit that you also have your dangerous sides. Sometimes, maybe, we will be the ones to devour you.'
