The Obama Inheritance: Fifteen Stories of Conspiracy Noir

Winner, 2018 Anthony Award for Best Anthology and Winner, Bronze Medal, 2017 Indie Book Awards for Anthologies, Foreword Reviews. Noir meets diverse voices and transforms the genre into an over-the-top, transcendental psychedelic thriller ride of pulpy goodness in THE OBAMA INHERITANCE, a collection of fifteen stories of conspiracy noir curated by editor and award-winning African-American crime novelist Gary Phillips.

In the tradition of satirical works of Swift and Twain, with nods to the likes of William Burroughs, Asimov and Philip K. Dick, these tales contain vigilante First Ladies, Supreme Court judges who can clone themselves, gear-popping robots of doom, and races of ancient lizard people revealing their true master plan... and these are just the tame ones mashed up in the blender of fake news bots, climate change is but a hoax by the Chinese and humans roamed with dinosaurs.

In an era where the outlandish and fantastic has permeated our media 24/7, where mind-bending conspiracy theories shape our views, THE OBAMA INHERITANCE writers riff on the numerous fictions spun about the 44th president of the U.S. Although Obama himself does not appear in most of these stories, contributors spin deliberately outlandish and fantastic twists on many of the dozens of screwball, bizarro conspiracy theories floated about the president during his years in office and turn them on their heads.

THE OBAMA INHERITANCE editor Gary Phillips is a critically acclaimed author of mystery and graphic novels (Peepland, Violent Spring, and Warlord of Willow Ridge). Raised in South Central Los Angeles, Phillips draws on his experiences from anti-police abuse community organizing and anti-apartheid activism. He was the chair of the Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color committee, and is president of the Private Eye Writers of America.

Contributors include famed crime-detective author and essayist Walter Mosley, professor and former Department of Justice attorney Christopher Chambers (Sympathy for the Devil), noir raconteur Andrew Nette, actor and novelist Danny Gardner (A Negro and an Ofay), former Maine assistant attorney general Kate Flora (Death in Paradise), award-winning playwright and novelist D sir e Zamorano, and the Science Fiction Writers of America Grand Master Robert Silverberg.

"Some short story collections are eclectic. Some are ambitious. Some are utterly mad. This one is all three." San Francisco Book Review

"The ideas are first-rate, and readers who enjoy political satire in its many varied forms will certainly enjoy this collection." Booklist

"Resistance takes many forms, particularly in the current political climate. Few methods of protest are as cheerfully strange and purposefully bizarre as The Obama Inheritance." The Washington Post

Gary Phillips is a critically acclaimed author of mystery and graphic novels (The Darker Mask, Bangers, Violent Spring). Raised in South Central Los Angeles, Phillips draws on his experiences from anti-police abuse community organizing and anti-apartheid activism in his work. He was the chair of the Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color committee, and was president of the Private Eye Writers of America.

Walter Mosley is a bestselling American novelist, most widely recognized for his crime fiction. He has written a series of best-selling historical mysteries featuring the hard-boiled detective Easy Rawlins, a black private investigator and World War II veteran living in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles; they are perhaps his most popular works.

Christopher Chambers is a bestselling author whose works include the Angela Bivens(R) series of FBI crime novels for Random House, the recent illustrated superhero anthology The Darker Mask with Walter Mosley, the upcoming graphic novel Gangsterland about Harlem and mobster "Lucky" Luciano in the 1930s, and the much anticipated historical novel Yella Pasty's Boys, a study on slavery and War of 1812. Professor Chambers is a former U.S. Justice Department attorney, and a graduate of Princeton University. He is a Lecturer in Journalism and Media Studies at Georgetown University, and he has lectured on issues in communications, culture & the media and race across the United States for organizations such as Black Entertainment Television (BET), the National Association of Black Journalists, and Princeton University. He writes for theRoot.com, Uptown Life magazine and the City Paper (Washington). His current project for Georgetown is a biography of Father Patrick Healy, titled A Canticle for Eliza: The Memoir of Patrick Healy, Slave. Professor Chambers is a Washington D.C. native and grew up in D.C., Brooklyn, N.Y. Baltimore, Maryland.

Lise McClendon writes fiction from her home in Montana. She is the author of twelve novels (including Blue Wolf), short stories, and articles. In 1997 she wrote and directed the short film, The Hoodoo Artist, featured at the Telluride Indiefest. She has served on the national boards of directors for Mystery Writers of America and International Association of Crime Writers/North America. She is on the faculty of the Jackson Hole Writers Conference and co-presents a novel workshop for writers.