Syncopation: A Novel In Verse

"A vivid, compelling, active novel in verse. The world is divided into four quadrants, each plagued by its own unexpected weather. O and Z adore each other through the ruins of memory loss, earthquake, and world collapse, as they travel together towards a new way of being. Whitney French has a wonderful sense of image and true ear for beauty. I loved especially the play with déjà vu, the society of beings who eschew names as a way to stay together, and how Hogan's Alley appears anew as roadway of the future. This is an extraordinary book-original and strange." — Larissa Lai, author of The Tiger Flu and The Lost Century

"Wry, tender and powerfully inventive, Syncopation names the worlds and relations that may yet outlive a ravaged earth. Whitney French is herself a 'Neo-Griot,' creating an inhabitable future through rhythm, choral voice and incantatory memory work. This is vigilante storytelling, demanding not only speculative contexts but also generic refusals, a book that honours the sublime forms of love." — David Chariandy, author of Soucouyant and Brother

"it is vigorous, insistent, and stimulating, the sort of book that sets you off in an unexpected new direction—the sort of book that you will find yourself endlessly puzzling over without ever being able to quite get it out of your head." — Paul Kincaid, Strange Horizons

"Whitney French's new novel-in-verse, Syncopation, is a beautiful, challenging narrative … Syncopation is ultimately a story about memory, history, and the dangers of forgetting far more than it is a story about ill-fated love in unlikely circumstances." — Zoe McKenna, The British Columbia Review

Whitney French (she/her) is a writer, educator and publisher. She is the editor of the award-winning anthology Black Writers Matter (University of Regina, 2019) and Griot: Six Writers' Sojourn into the Dark (Penguin Random House, 2022). Whitney is a Black futurist who explores memory, loss, technology and nature in her work. She is a certified arts educator and an Assistant Professor in Creative Writing at the University of British Colombia. She is also the co-founder and publisher of Hush Harbour, the only Black queer feminist press in Canada.