<p>Amanda Fields and Tiffanie Drayton chat with Whitney French, author of <em>Syncopation: A Novel in Verse</em>, about memory, identity, and what it means to reshape yourself in a fractured world.</p><p>In <em>Syncopation: A Novel in Verse</em>, in the aftermath of a Memory War, society is fragmented into new cultures, castes, and coalitions. Set against a backdrop of retrofitted food garages, microchip-sorting factories, and hyperloop terminals, this novel-in-verse emphasizes memory as the highest currency and love as dangerous, unruly, and singed with hope.</p><p>The protagonists are O and Z, two young women searching for purpose in a world where a decades-long earthquake reverberates, and the population scrambles to hide from deadly acid rain. Descended from space pirates, O is drawn to the sky, while Z is earthbound, a skilled forager with connections to the black market. The two become travel companions and lovers, and are conflicted between choosing their values or each other.</p><p>In this speculative novel, French offers readers an intricate future-world that resonates powerfully with our own, as it explores a people gripped in the war-torn politics of migration, memory-keeping, labor, and survival.</p><p>Whitney French is a writer, educator, and publisher. She is the editor of the award-winning anthology <em>Black Writers Matter</em> (University of Regina Press, 2019) and <em>Griot: Six Writers’ Sojourn into the Dark</em> (Knopf Canada, 2022). Whitney is a Black futurist who explores memory, loss, technology, and nature in her work. She is a certified arts educator and an assistant professor in creative writing at the University of British Columbia. She is also the co-founder and publisher of Hush Harbour, the only Black queer feminist press in Canada.</p><p>Socials & Links</p><p><a target="_blank" href="http://whitneyfrenchwrites.com/">Website</a></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.instagram.com/whitneyfrenchwrites/">Instagram</a></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.hushharbour.com/">Hush Harbor</a></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://bookstore.wolsakandwynn.ca/products/syncopation"><em>Syncopation: A Novel in Verse</em></a></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://linktr.ee/WhitneyFrenchWrites">https://linktr.ee/WhitneyFrenchWrites</a></p><p></p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://literarymama.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&#38;utm_campaign=CTA_1">literarymama.substack.com</a>