Not So Stories

Not the Tales You Were Told

Once upon a time, Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories—fantastical yarns of wondrous creatures in faraway places—bewitched children across the world. But times change. Today, Kipling’s writing tells us a different tale; of a love of Empire, and the troubling legacy of British colonialism.

In Not So Stories, writers of colour from around the world reclaim these stories and remake them into something new. Something different. Something that belongs to us all.

Including stories by Adiwijaya Iskandar, Joseph Elliott-Coleman, Raymond Gates, Stewart Hotston, Zina Hutton, Georgina Kamsika, Cassandra Khaw, Paul Krueger, Tauriq Moosa, Jeannette Ng, Ali Nouraei, Wayne Santos, Zedeck Siew and Achala Upendran, with illustrations by Woodrow Phoenix and a foreword by Nikesh Shukla.

David Thomas Moore is the editor of Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets, alt.sherlock.holmes, Monstrous Little Voices and Dracula: Rise of the Beast.

Zina Hutton is an aspiring fantasy writer who tends to leap headfirst into new stories and worlds the second that inspiration strikes. She works as a freelance editor and writer with publication credits in Fireside Fiction, The Mary Sue, Strange Horizons, ComicsAlliance and Women Write About Comics.

Georgina Kamsika has spent most of her life explaining her English first name, Polish surname and Asian features. She graduated from the Clarion West workshop in 2012, and her current novel, The Goddess of the North, is with her agent.

Paul Krueger is the author of Last Call at the Nightshade Lounge, a novel about bartenders who fight demons with alcohol magic. He lives in Los Angeles.

Tauriq Moosa is a contributor to the Guardian, Daily Beast and other publications. His work has been referred to by The New York Times, the Washington Post, Forbes and other places. He once debated Desmond Tutu about god.

Ali Nouraei is a qualified barrister, a practising mediator, and has written fiction for fifteen years. His passions include history, literature, and cake.

Zedeck Siew used to work in Malaysian media, covering art, culture and parliament, and co-designed Politiko, a card game about Malaysian party politics. He is currently working on an illustrated catalogue of imaginary Southeast Asian animals, Creatures of Near Kingdoms, out in late 2017.