A ground-breaking anthology of haunting speculative stories by contemporary Black Canadian writers that explore growth, futurity, and joy. Edited by Terese Mason Pierre and featuring stories by Trynne Delaney, francesca ekwuyasi, Whitney French, Aline-Mwezi Niyonsenga, Chimedum Ohaegbu, Suyi Davies Okungbowa, Chinelo Onwalu, Lue Palmer, and Zalika Reid-Benta.
Intrigued? Well read on to discover the synopsis and an excerpt from As the Earth Dreams: Black Canadian Speculative Stories, which releases on 14 October 2025.
This bold and innovative anthology of speculative short fiction reveals and uplifts the spectacular imaginings, reveries, reflections, experiments, and hopes of Black writers in Canada. A woman attends her mother’s latest resurrection, only to encounter family she’s never met. A postdoc instructor navigates an almost-life in an Elsewhere realm of safety and comfort. After social collapse, a former sex worker leaves her precarious station, and her memories, behind. A woman isolating from a new virus starts hallucinating. In lyrical fragments, a young nanny accepts a job with a peculiar employer. A medium is tasked with summoning a spirit that hits too close to home. And two teenagers test a friendship over magic carpet flying practice. These breathtaking stories explore natural and urban landscapes, living and dead relationships, economic catastrophe, love, and desire—all while celebrating the persistent and ever-changing self, and envisioning beautiful Black futures.
Excerpted from “Peak Day” by Suyi Davies Okungbowa, in As the Earth Dreams, edited by Terese Mason Pierre. © Terese Mason Pierre 2025. Published by House of Anansi Press. Houseofanansi.com
8:00 a.m.
Welcome to Everything Co. You applied for this role yourself? Solid. So you already know what we do here. No time to waste; doors open in an hour. I’ll show you around, then to your workstation and your task for the day.
Hey, look at me—don’t look outside. Ignore them
Just to confirm, your implant is working fine? Tested and all? Because we can’t have that malfunctioning. It’s Peak Day. You know what that is? Solid. We can’t have Peak Day without you. Today, more than any other day, we have a singular purpose: to understand everything the customer wants before they want it. We must anticipate their needs and deliver to them what they want before they know they want it. That’s how we serve here at Everything.
I said stop looking outside.
That, you can look at. Magnificent, eh? I’m sure you’re wondering what’s inside. Don’t worry, everybody wonders what’s under that dome. Want to guess? Here are the top three things new joiners always say: a supercomputer, banks of servers, a secret weapon. Unfortunately, it’s none of those things! But I’ll let you in on a little secret. It’s also all of those things! Ha!
No, I’ve not seen it myself. No one has. All our fulfillment centres have one, but no one knows what’s in it. Even prenotes like you who get to work with it never know.
More on that later. Come, join the morning assembly.
8:32 a.m.
All right, did you catch everything? Solid. Any questions?
Your station? Up there. Let’s walk over.
I hear you’re still a bit dizzy. Aftereffects of the surgery, is it? Well, I don’t know what to do about that. I’ll have to check in with my director. I hear this all stabilizes once you put on the helmet, so maybe once you get to working, you’ll feel better.
I know I’m prying—and I’m not supposed to pry— but is it true you were almost dead before we stepped in? Aneurysm, was it? Wow. Can’t believe we’re literally out there hijacking death! Not only pulling you from its jaws with proprietary tech, but also giving you a job using that same proprietary tech. Yes, yes, I know it’s to repay the costs, but, you know. Death or work—I know which I’d choose.
Prying again, but how much time do you have on your bond? Know what, don’t answer that. Against policy.
Here’s your workstation. It’s all very simple—this is the helmet, these are your three keys. Helmet runs database scans on an ongoing loop, filtering for useful datapoints, and your job is to sift through the datapoints presented and match them.
Helmet on—here, let me show you.
Solid. Now, green key here is for when you see an audience datapoint that matches a stock datapoint. What does that mean? That a potential customer may want or will soon want something. The dome will know and show you. Not in your visor, no—neurosignals. In your brain. Then you “see,” if you catch my meaning.
Okay, so use the green key to approve, and the floor techs will do the rest. Oh, yeah, they just pressure the stock datapoints against the audience datapoint until they collide. Collide is how we say completed sale here in these parts.
Solid. Now, yellow key is for when you’re unsure if the datapoints match. If you use that, the datapoints will be recycled and presented to you again until you’re sure whether or not they match. Red key is for when you’re sure they don’t match. But let me warn you right now: do not use red, ever. Red says there’s a malfunction in the dome and therefore it’s giving you wrong results. There’s never a malfunction in the dome. There cannot be a malfunction in the dome on Peak Day. In fact, if there’s a malfunction today, it will be you. I suggest you scan your brain implant before considering the red key.
You don’t have a scanner? Why? Can’t afford it? Well. What can I say?
Anyway, if there’s a malfunction, it’s you.
I’ll go up to my station right there—look where I’m pointing; I told you to stop looking outside. I’m going there now to push a few trial datapoints to you, see if everything is working fine. We have less than a quarter hour before doors open.
Oh, one last thing: you know your implant is remotely controlled, right? They can turn it on or off at any time. Not me—I don’t have that ability; I’m just a floor manager. But if your results—which they receive in real-time—if your results are not up to par, you get time added to your bond. And then, if they please, they can shut off your implant anytime. And you know what happens when they shut it off, right?
Solid.
8:55 a.m.
Can you hear me? Just double-checking the intercom over here.
One thing: many prenotes say they experience a bit of vertigo when the first rush of datapoints come in. It may happen to you once doors open, but don’t be alarmed. It’s just the dome and your implant establishing connection and your brain getting used to that.
Still dizzy? Let’s hope you don’t get that vertigo.
No, I’m sorry, you can’t sit. Look around. Do you see any chairs? We don’t sit here at Everything Co. But don’t worry, you’ll get used to it. I’ve been floor manager for over a decade and I’ve stood through all my shifts.
All right, look alive. Here it comes.
9:02 a.m.
Doing all right there, buddy? No vertigo? Only a little? Solid.
See that number in the top right corner of your visor? That’s your productivity value. It’s based on the collision success rate that comes from your approvals, and then applied against your bond. Positive values—high collision rates—reduce your bond. Negative values—low collision rates—increase your bond. So don’t just go approving everything and anything. You’ll only be hurting yourself.
9:23 a.m.
Buddy, you will need to stop looking outside. They have your visor feed, you know? They can see everything.
10:11 a.m.
Excellent work there, buddy. Yes, I know your name is not “buddy,” but let’s use that for now, shall we? We’ll see if you last long enough for me to use your name, or if you’ll be like previous prenotes.
11:07 a.m.
Break is at noon, a sharp thirty minutes. Small note of warning: do not attempt to mingle with the other workers. You are not like them, they are not like you. You have a special role here. Focus on that.
We can take lunch together, if that’ll help you keep to time.
12:10 p.m
First days are hard, yeah? Okay, here’s a bit of a salvo. You can ask three questions. I’ll give you three answers as best I can without getting into trouble.
I can’t tell you how many departments we have, but let me tell you this: many of them are just like ours. That is, they have only one or two workers. Everything else is automated. If you stretch your neck now and look at that floor, how many people can you find? Exactly. Now count the automatons. Exactly.
Outside? Ah, well, that’s unfortunately an anti–Peak Day rally. You must’ve seen one before joining us, right? They’re all over every media, everyday, all the time. Each Peak Day, they gather there outside, rallying against us, accusing us of silly things—their favourite label is techno-capitalist slavers. Ha! Imagine that. Policy is just to ignore them, which is why I keep asking you to not look outside.
Why would you ask that? How are previous prenotes any of your business? You’re the current prenote. Focus on that.
Look, we’re done here. Better hurry up and go relieve yourself. You won’t get another opportunity before end of day.
1:02 p.m.
What is it?
Flashes? What do you mean flashes?
Wait, I’m coming down.
1:04 p.m.
I’ve never heard of that before. Are you making this up?
Describe them, then. Describe these “flashes.”
I see. And you don’t quite remember these faces you’re seeing? Then how do you know they’re your friends or family? Okay, so you don’t know. How does this concern me exactly?
Buddy, if you can’t remember your people’s names or faces, that’s a you problem.
The headaches—how severe? Well, you better take your meds, because I can see your productivity points already dropping.
You don’t have meds? Why? You couldn’t aff—can you afford anything?
Want my advice? Find a way to solve this and get back to work immediately. You can mess up your productivity all you want, but if you mess up mine, I swear to god—
What the fuck?
