Essential Dreams Press

Dreams for a Broken World

Pricing Information
Paperback: $20.00
eBook: $7.99

Release Date: November 1, 2022.

Order Paperback: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Moon Bookseller | Bookshop.org
Order eBook: Amazon | Apple Books | B&N Nook | Kobo | Weightless Books

"[These stories are] beautiful, they're fresh, and they are painful. This is not an anthology that begs to be read in one sitting; not that it doesn't merit such a binge, but because each story requires a breath between them, and, frankly, deserves to be savored... it never ceases to be a pleasure to read" —Locus Magazine

"This anthology offers seriously admirable work. Highly recommended.”
—Arley Sorg, Lightspeed Magazine

"24 impressive stories of healing and rebuilding...These hopeful stories offer something for any speculative fiction reader." —Publishers Weekly

"Some of these stories explore a world that is fully broken, others are focused on when it just begins to crack. But what's clear above all is that the world breaks for some groups of people much earlier than others. An inclusive and adept anthology in which each story is a facet for a different perspective on where we've gone—or will go—wrong." 
—Brian Evenson
"A thoughtful, diverse collection hewing closely to the themes of connection and devotion—tender reunions, heartbreaking partings, misplaced loyalty, friendship, romance, parenthood, these character-focused stories have it all."
—Premee Mohamed

Series Editor: Julie C. Day (blog | Twitter)
Guest Editor: Ellen Meeropol (blog | Twitter)

All proceeds go directly to the Rosenberg Fund for Children.

Patron saints and luchadores. Trickster gods. Freedom fighters. Infections of fire. Gated communities and glass castles. Hong Kong. Iran. NYC. The 1860s and the end of the world. The stories in this anthology reflect the authors’ varied creative interests along with their wide-ranging backgrounds and experiences.

Why collect stories about our Dreams for a Broken World?

Because our world is broken. Our society is rife with injustice and inequality, war and environmental disaster, racism and hatred.

Stories help us imagine other futures. Stories inspire us. When we read, or write, about individuals and communities fighting for justice, we grow to believe in these possibilities. Maybe we even join the characters, breaking through barriers and building new connections.

This second anthology in the Dreams series draws from both genre and literary traditions to dream together about a more just world. Though the work traverses an array of styles, genres, and subject matter, themes connect each of these stories. What does it mean to live in a fractured and uncertain world? How do we face the ugliness? How do we find a better way forward?

ISBN: 978-1-9553600-5-0
Page count: 304

Our TOC

With seven original works and seventeen stories published together for the first time, Dreams for a Broken World brings together twenty-four authors who’ve generously offered up their work for this project:

Andrew Altschul, Joy Baglio, Breena Clarke, Zig Zag Claybourne, Tina Egnoski, Cai Emmons, JoeAnn Hart, Ava Homa, Innocent Chizarama Ilo, Céline Keating, Aimee Liu, Jan Maher, Usman T. Malik, Benjamin Parzybok, Charles Payseur, Robert V.S. Redick, Veronica Schanoes, Nisi Shawl, Vandana Singh, Lisa Taylor, Sheree Renée Thomas, Marie Vibbert, Cynthia Robinson Young, and Sabrina Vourvoulias.

Us

Dreams for a Broken World is the second charity anthology in the Dreams series published by Essential Press, an imprint of Reckoning Press; charity means that all the proceeds from sales are donated to a non-profit doing work to fix our broken world. For this anthology, all proceeds will go to the Rosenberg Fund for Children. The RFC is a non-profit, public foundations that aids children in the U.S. whose parents are targeted, progressive activists. They also assist youth who themselves have been targeted as a result of their progressive activities.

Can stories change the world? Not alone. But as poet Martín Espada wrote, “Any oppressive social condition, before it can be changed, must be named and condemned in words that persuade by stirring the emotions, awakening the senses.”

Naming. Condemning. Stirring. Awakening. That’s what we hope these stories will do for all of us.