I've been a fan of cyberpunk since I first discovered it in 2003. Yeah, I was 20 years behind the times, but I didn't care. I felt a new generation needed to know all about it, so I wrote a cyberpunk book, Cog. But I prefer the short story medium, and searched for a place that would welcome a cyberpunk story with Black characters.

Over the course of several years on Facebook, I've gathered 1,000+ friends, one of whom was Milton Davis. From the ATL. He was self-publishing African-themed books and anthologies on sword and soul and steampunk. Then one day, an idea came to him about a city where no one could leave. He posted his idea on Facebook in the State of Black Science Fiction, and a bunch of writers ran with it, posting snippets of stories in the thread, and linking characters, generating ideas. Then someone said we needed to publish an anthology of all the stories. Balogun Ojetade wrote the manifesto. An artist came along by the name of Natiq Jalil, and said he would illustrate it. A music aficionado named Otis Galloway volunteered to write sound tracks. And a multimedia, multisensory book of stories was born. The City. Cyberfunk.

What is The City?

The City began as a sentient organism living inside a large asteroid. For thousands of years, the organism used the asteroid's gravity to intercept ships from various planets and galaxies, assimilating the crew and wiping their memories, and giving them new jobs, families, and experiences. No one knows why. It just does. The organism used the assimilated information to build The City and its environment. The first beings to be captured were crew on a Nigerian space vessel. Nigeria was the first to achieve intergalactic travel during the Great Race by the major countries of the planet Earth to be the first to venture outside of the Milky Way.

If you want to explore cyberfunk, here are some recommendations: Neuromancer by William Gibson, Thirteen by Richard K. Morgan, Futureland by Walter Mosley, Ganger (Ball Lightning) by Nalo Hopkinson [short story available here: http://www.e-reading.club/chapter.php/150066/0/Hopkinson_-_Ganger_(Ball_Lightning).htm]

And if you want to know more about Knowledge Lateef, Street Preacher; the Ooze; and the Tell, you're going to have to read the book. It's available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3hpGB9K

We are the writers, and we call ourselves the Cityzens:
Jeff Carroll, Gerald Coleman, Milton Davis, Ray Dean, Malon Edwards, Ashtyn Foster, Otis Galloway, Keith Gaston, Chanel Harry, Natiq Jalil, Valjeanne Jeffers, Alan Jones, Brandee Laird, Kai Leakes, Edison Moody, B. Sharise Moore, Howard Night, Balogun Ojetade, Ced Pharoah, And Yours Truly, K. Ceres Wright

by K. Ceres Wright

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K. Ceres Wright is the author of the cyberpunk book, Cog.
Her short stories, articles, and poetry have appeared in Hazard Yet Forward; Genesis: An Anthology of Black Science Fiction; Many Genres, One Craft; 2008 Rhysling Anthology; Diner Stories: Off the Menu; Far Worlds; and The City.
Contact her on Twitter: @KCeresWright
and read her blog at kcereswright.com/blog
K. Ceres Wright answers The Usual Questions

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See also in this series:
The Immortal Enduring Vampire by Rhiannon Frater
Get Ready Cyberfunkers: Black Science Fiction by K. Ceres Wright
Defining Horror by Jeani Rector
Steampunk: A Marvellous Excursion by Michael Pryor
Female Private Eyes in Fiction: From Lady Detectives to Hard-Boiled Dames by Colleen Collins
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Western Writing by Julia Robb
Grand Tradition Science Fiction: Stories that Want to Have Fun, by Bascomb James
Unintended Invention: The Fantasy of Manners, by Ellen Kushner

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