Nowhere Lands: Exploring Utopian and Dystopian Voices

Nowhere Lands: Exploring Utopian & Dystopian Voices features striking poetry, thought-provoking essays, and gripping narratives that explore the human condition and visions of what may be. This collection explores a continuum of societal extremes ranging from a writer’s belief in a more perfect democracy to the cruel and brutal actions of an authoritarian leader. Each essay, poem, speech, and story forms a map to the nowhere lands; places that begin in the author’s imagination but become real as readers discover worlds simultaneously foreign and familiar. Nowhere Lands includes diverse pieces from authors of different centuries, cultures, and worldviews. From Alabama Governor George Wallace's 1963 inaugural address, which declared “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever,” to Ta-Nehisi Coates's 2019 Congressional testimony, where he described the American sense of being "bound to a collective enterprise that extends beyond our individual and personal reach," this book presents societies pushed to extremes. The works in this anthology use topics such as race, gender, and economics to evaluate societal organization through the fantastical and the mundane. In this moment of seismic cultural and political change, Nowhere Lands provides a meaningful opportunity to reflect on each author's assertions about our future. In turn, readers are encouraged, through guided questions and contextual footnotes, to consider how the worlds described in the anthology mirror the world outside their windows. This anthology includes:· A comprehensive table of contents with works from across the globe· Contextual introductions to each work· Key vocabulary terms for student readers· An expansive “For further reading” section for genre devotees· Editorial footnotes explaining outdated language, context, or obscure references Read more