The Bird Tribe

Praise for Flying the Coop

“This second volume in Roy’s Dreambird Chronicles… keep[s] the focus on the three young protagonists. What carries them forward are seeds of hope, anger, and history and the belief that they can force change. With strong connections to current events and an unflinching look at how things could be, Flying the Coop is an essential read.”–Booklist, starred review

Praise for The Freedom Race

“Every now and then a work comes along that makes you wonder whether you are reading or dreaming. And you’re not sure it matters which.”–Nikki Giovanni

“Roy’s comprehensive worldbuilding and immersive language creates a tapestry that blends realistic fantasy with the Black experience in the United States. The deliberate pacing and visceral descriptions of planting life will not suit all readers, but the investment is worthwhile. Ji-ji’s journey is a story of resilience and hope rooted in a place where Octavia Butler and Rivers Solomon intersect with The Handmaid’s Tale.”–Booklist

“You ever have the feeling that if you don’t read something, you may be missing out on something momentous happening? … I got that vibe from the first page of The Freedom Race. It has a prescience about it in the tradition of Octavia Butler… . If ‘resilience’ was a book, it would be The Freedom Race.”–Maurice Broaddus, author of Buffalo Soldier

“Roy (The Hotel Alleluia) turns to speculative fiction for the first time with this lyrical, Afrofuturist hero’s quest set in the not-too-distant future. …[Ji-Ji’s] harrowing but profoundly spiritual quest for sovereignty against all odds impresses. Readers … will appreciate both the tenacious heroine and Roy’s intricate prose stylings.”–Publishers Weekly

“The future Lucinda Roy calls up in The Freedom Race is a fierce, unsettling riff on our past and present. Instead of watching democracy evaporate and justice fail, Ms. Roy challenges us all to get over ourselves and join the race for freedom.”–Andrea Hairston, author of Will Do Magic for Small Change

“American magic-realism meets the outcome of the Second U.S. Civil War in a well-told, but brutally jolting, strangely prescient, and soul-haunting narrative.”–L. E. Modesitt, Jr., bestselling author of the Saga of Recluce series

LUCINDA ROY (she/her) is an award-winning novelist, poet, and memoirist, and a lifelong advocate for diversity and inclusion. She has lived and taught on three continents and is recognized for her keynotes on race and gender, creative writing, and education reform. Her commentaries and poetry have been published in numerous newspapers and journals. She lives with her husband in Blacksburg, Virginia, where, as a distinguished professor, she teaches creative writing at Virginia Tech.

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