Salaam treats words like the seductive weapons they are. She wields them to weave fierce, gorgeous stories that stroke your sensibilities, challenge your preconceptions and leave you breathless with their beauty.”Nalo Hopkinson, Author of the Nebula nominated novel The New Moon's Arms
Kiini Ibura Salaam’s short stories (and the characters who inhabit them) are vital, fantastic in all senses of the word, audacious and tender.”Kelly Link, author of the Pulitzer Prize nominated collection Get In Trouble
 In this eagerly-awaited collection, Kiini Ibura Salaam continues her exploration of the dark, the sensual, and the mysterious with fiction that disturbs, delights, and dazzles. The five stories and one novella collected in When the World Wounds examine the tumultuous nature of the human condition through such wild imaginings as sensual encounters with deer, escapism in a dystopic prison, and volcano women. In The Taming,” a lupine creature is trapped by beasts whose nefarious nature is beyond their prey’s understanding. In Hemmie’s Calenture,” a woman escaping enslavement is thrust into a war between gods. The Pull of the Wing” is the prequel to Salaam’s wildly popular Of Wings, Nectar, and Ancestors trilogy. Because of the Bone Man” transports readers to the desolate landscape of post-Katrina New Orleans and the struggle of the city’s culture bearers to carry on. A welcome follow-up to Salaam’s award-winning Ancient, Ancient, When the World Wounds is perceptive and engaging as it examines our world’s callous and perilous landscapes while tickling the imagination and startling the senses.
Kiini Ibura Salaam is a natural-born storyteller and a gorgeous writer who chooses her characters and words with the care and skill of a poet. Her stories are transformative, wise and vivid with the quality of fantasy and fable. I loved reading this!”Sherre Renée Thomas, Editor of the World Fantasy Award winning anthology Dark Matter: Reading the Bones 
Salaam’s collection introduces readers to alternate worlds built around magic, sensuality, sexuality, and the search for emotional comfort, however tenuous. Salaam’s unusual settings and lonely characters will call to readers who hunger for sex, identity, or just a place to belong.”Publishers Weekly 
Kiini Ibura Salaam's first collection Ancient, Ancient (Aqueduct Press, 2012) won the James Tiptree Award. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

When the World Wounds

Literature & Fiction

Salaam, Kiini Ibura

United States

Third Man Books

Winner of the 2012 James Tiptree Jr. Award, Ancient, Ancient collects the short fiction by Kiini Ibura Salaam, of which acclaimed author and critic Nalo Hopkinson writes, ''Salaam treats words like the seductive weapons they are. She wields them to weave fierce, gorgeous stories that stroke your sensibilities, challenge your preconceptions, and leave you breathless with their beauty.'' In naming Ancient, Ancient one of the Best Fantasy and Science Fiction Books of 2012, Jeff VanderMeer writes, "Magic and sexuality permeate these stories that seek the emotional core of their characters. Interesting settings and Salaam's exuberant but controlled prose help to anchor narratives that are continually question, pushing for something beyond the usual." Indeed, Ms. Salaam's stories are so permeated with sensuality that in her introduction to Ancient, Ancient, Nisi Shawl, author of the award-winning Filter House, writes, ''Sexuality-cum-sensuality is the experiential link between mind and matter.... And it is the throbbing, glistening heart of Kiini's body of work. This book is alive. Be not afraid.'' ''Kiini Ibura Salaam's collection of short fiction, Ancient, Ancient, demonstrates that she deserves to be considered one of today's most promising contemporary genre writers. With writing that challenges assumptions on gender, the nature of fantasy, the uses of myth and much more, she offers the readers stories that they will not soon forget. A marvelous introduction to a marvelous writer.''--Jack Womack, author of Random Acts of Senseless Violence '''Kiini Ibura Salaam is a natural-born storyteller and a gorgeous writer who chooses her characters and words with the care and skill of a poet. Her stories are transformative, wise and vivid with the quality of fantasy and fable. I loved reading this!''--Sheree Renee Thomas, author of Shotgun Lullabies: Stories and Poems and editor of the award-winning Dark Matter anthologies This collection of moving stories interleaves many themes, perhaps the most effective for me being the alienation of the foreigner....Throughout the language is stunning, like music become words. I found my own mind dazzled and my imagination stretched to keep up with the flow of images.-- Martha Hubbard , The Future Fire

Ancient, Ancient

Aqueduct Press

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Books by Salaam, Kiini Ibura

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Salaam, Kiini Ibura. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

When the World Wounds

Ancient, Ancient