Synopsis

Award-winning poet and novelist Alison Clarke reimagines the legacy of Harriet E. Wilson—the first Black woman to publish a novel in America (1859)—as a breathtaking journey across galaxies, myth, and time in her latest work, M: The Mystical Odyssey of Harriet E. Wilson.

Blending historical fiction, fantasy, and Afrofuturist mythology, Clarke’s novel follows a lonely modern woman named Selena who encounters Anisie, a banished Spider Queen. Together, they traverse cosmic realms where faeries, goddesses, and sirens wage war against forces of silence and erasure. At the heart of their quest lies Harriet E. Wilson herself—the Messenger and Singer of Lyric Song—whose words hold the power to restore balance between darkness and light.

Richly imagined and profoundly resonant, M: The Mystical Odyssey of Harriet E. Wilson explores themes of identity, sisterhood, creativity, and the healing power of story. Clarke’s lyrical prose has drawn acclaim for its visionary worldbuilding and emotional depth.

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Excerpt

Chapter One:

Selena

Land of golden silk. The earth. Granules of golden brown. Creatures flying in the air – sand creatures with fangs and eyes of glass – capped, with large goggles surrounding their ghastly glass eyes, and hoods that hid their faces. I saw these creatures in my dreams, night after night. I thought: “What did it mean?”

The next day, I decided to go to the park, Elk Island, home of the bison. More questions entered my mind: “They were so huge, these big beasts of dark brown fur and horns, but yet their bodies are on these little legs? How could such little legs hold up such big beasts?” It still boggled my mind. I asked myself, “How did Nature have such a purposeful design? How did that come into being? Is there something beyond us out there? What are the origins of the universe?”

Before you know it, I was out on one of the barbecue sites, not far from a lake, getting some wood from one of the nearby sheds and built a fire. I felt like roasting marshmallows, so I did. The fire, scarlet,  framed with gold , and a base of cerulean , greeted me. I closed my eyes for a while, the fire cackled softly, but it was like a soft music. But then I sensed something: I knew that something was flying in the stratosphere, but close to me, and I didn’t know what. Another question floated into my mind: “How did I know?” These things, it made me wonder – maybe there is something beyond us that we do not quite understand. Maybe. I kept closing my eyes and thinking of what could be. Then, I sensed something and opened them.

A huge spider appeared in front of me; I almost fainted. Suddenly, there was a ball of light: magenta, gold, emerald, and fuchsia. I again closed my eyes, afraid of what I might see. I opened them again, and in front of me was a woman, a tall woman with skin the colour of cocoa, and the most haunting but also sombre grey eyes. I didn’t know what to say. Then, wings, butterfly wings, appeared out of nowhere. I didn’t know what to believe.

“You,” she said. I didn’t say a word. “You,” she repeated. “You,” she echoed.

“What are you?” I gasped. “I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s like I’m in a dream.”

“Dream, it is not. I have only read about your kind –  mortals. I know your feet touch the ground in many realms, in many lifetimes, past, present, and future, but here you are. I don’t know what to think myself.”

“Why are you here?”

“I don’t know,” replied the shape-shifter, “I got bored. There’s nothing to do in my Kingdom where I’m from. It is not easy, this life of solitude; well, loneliness… I paid a high price for my pride.”

I asked what she meant, and the faerie, who later said that her name was Anisie, told me. A king, King Jobali, punished her for having a beautiful gift: a gift of weaving beautiful clothes, like tunics shimmering with silver threads and embroidered with sapphires and rubies. Anisie also made dresses with the silk from her moon, Sutania, sister to our Moon. The silk made from Lady Sutania’s rays illuminated the universe where Anisie lived.

Her shawls were made from Lady Sutania’s moondrops that shimmered like pearls. But the King was jealous, and Anisie did not want to back down when he punished the artisans for creating Beauty that surpassed the artisans of his court. The other artisans, people Anisie knew, relented, following the King’s demands and later a decree that only the artisans from the Royal Court could make such finery. But Anisie would not submit. She would not acquiesce. She would not back down, and so his sorcerer changed her into a spider, and now Anisie can only take human form in moonlight, or when she travels through space and time.

I replied quietly, “That’s tough. What are you going to do now?”

“I have to stay steadfast in my solitude, traverse the universe, or rather universes, and learn. You? Are you happy here, on…” Anisie tried to find the words.

“This is Earth, actually, a planet called Earth.”

“Oh,” Anisie replied. “I see. This planet, does it look like this all over?” I shook my head. “And these beasts, what are they?”

“Buffalo,” I replied, “people got together and saved them from extinction.” Anisie nodded.

She had heard about things like this happening in her world.

“You, are you happy here?” I again shook my head. “Would you like to go on an adventure… a journey travelling to different worlds?”

Reprinted with Permission from Alison Clarke

About the Author

Alison Clarke is a poet, fantasy author, and visual artist who is also the Amazon #1 bestselling author of Phillis: A Poetry Collection (University Of Calgary Press, 2020),  and the award winning series, The Sisterhood, for which she won the Diversity Magazine award for 2016 Writer Of The Year. She has also won the 2020 Fil Fraser award for her contributions to literary and visual art. Alison was the 2021 Writer In Residence of the Alexandra Writers’ Centre.

Most recently, in 2023, Alison has been awarded a Fellowship from the American Antiquarian Society, for research on an upcoming historical fiction series, which includes M: The Mystical Odyssey Of Harriet E. Wilson, that will be Book One of this series.

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