The anthology Love after the End features stories from Indigenous, Two-Spirit, and Indigiqueer writers that all centre Indigenous people and the idea of what love (romantic and familial) may look like post-pandemic, post-climate change, post-interstellar travel. The characters work through their own values, and in some cases, sacrifices, to keep and maintain their love for self, for family, and for culture. This collection is a must-have that warms the heart and could be used in parts or as a whole for units on short stories and for Social Studies, Social Justice, and Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity discussions. Stories may also be used in younger grades depending on the maturity of the audience.

Caution: Some violence.

192 pp., 6 × 9"

Edited by Joshua Whitehead (Oji-nêhiyaw, Peguis First Nation)

Source: Association of Book Publishers of BC - Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools (2021-2022)

Joshua Whitehead is an Oji-Cree/nehiyaw, Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer member of Peguis First Nation (Treaty 1). He is the author of the bestselling novel Jonny Appleseed (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2018), longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award, and winner of Canada Reads; and the poetry collection full-metal indigiqueer (Talonbooks, 2017), which was the winner of the Governor General's History Award for the Indigenous Arts and Stories Challenge in 2016. He is also the editor of Love after the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2020). His next book is a work of creative non-fiction entitled Making Love with the Land that details mental health, queerness, and Indigeneity and is forthcoming with Knopf Canada.

Joshua Whitehead's profile page

• Winner, Lambda Literary Award

Each of these smart, stunning, imaginative stories has not only fuelled my imagination but also filled my heart, reminding me how dramatically different it is to experience work written with absolute love. Reading Love after the End is like being handed a glass of fresh water in the middle of the desert. -Alicia Elliott, author of A Mind Spread Out on the Ground

These stories show the ongoing tendril-like effects of colonialism but are not wholly defined by it. There is a potential beyond colonialism, beyond the apocalyptic, that lies in Indigenous love, two-spirit love, Indigiqueer love. -Chicago Review of Books

In these pages, survival is a collective exercise. And amid the chaos and instability of each tale, there are exquisite moments of intimacy depicted in every story, reminding the reader that love is always a reason to live. -Vancouver Sun

The so-called end times feel so perilously close right now. With such a cacophony of anxiety, despair, and cynicism bearing down on us, it is sometimes easy to forget that Indigenous peoples have been here before, and we still remain to uphold our responsibilities to the world and to one another. Our stories guide us forward into an ever-uncertain future, just as they guide us back home. And as editor Joshua Whitehead affirms in the introduction, Love after the End is a book we need right now - and well beyond the now. The stories here are difficult, they're beautiful, they're hilarious and sad and frightening and hopeful. But more than all of that, they guide us back to ourselves and to our relations on a shimmering trail of song and stardust. The two-spirit visionaries in this collection remind us in so many ways that the world is a wounded relative in need of healing, and that to abandon her in this time of trial is to betray the sacred bonds of kinship that we were meant to carry with courage and compassion. I am grateful beyond words that this book is in the world, and grateful to the writers, artists, and editor for the gift of (re)imagining futures where Indigenous love, liberation, and laughter flourish far beyond the settler imaginary. -Daniel Heath Justice, author of Why Indigenous Literatures Matter

Many of the stories offer portraits of a dead Earth from which new life springs, and all are ultimately uplifting, hinting at a way forward through the darkness of the present. Drawing on deep wells of history and experience, these powerful stories are sure to impress. -Publishers Weekly

These stories are a welcome breath of fresh air in the often hyperindividualist, survivalist subgenre of postapocalyptic fiction, and are essential reading for anyone committed to the possibilities of sf as a means to create new and different futures. -Booklist (STARRED REVIEW)