“An exceptional work of magical realism...spectacular, full of energy and intelligence. [Weird Black Girls] features notes of Jesmyn Ward's musicality, shares Percival Everett's wit and flair for metaphor and calls to mind Gayl Jones' fierce sense for the fantastic.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune

“In each of the seven stories in this collection, characters pursue their obsessions on paths to glory and destruction while around them their worlds twist and warp, oscillating between reality and impossibility.”—Gizmodo

"Splendidly strange...the stories are gleefully genre-busting...yet their invention is always grounded in the tangible struggles the characters face...an epiphany about our shared American reality that is all the more startling for its brutal familiarity...a must-read."—Kirkus, starred review

"An astounding collection from a rare talent.”—Booklist, starred review

"[Cotman] utilizes magical conceits and pop culture references to probe America’s legacy of racism in this striking collection…The distinctive and troubled characters make these stories stand out. Cotman’s versatile talents are on full display." —Publishers Weekly

“Homeboy can write. There’s absolutely no doubt about that. And not afraid to nerd out either. With Weird Black Girls, Cotman stellarly bursts open the thread of Black space in fiction. A landmark collection!” —Sidik Fofana, author of Stories From the Tenants Downstairs

“Elwin Cotman is a brilliant writer, full stop, and Weird Black Girls is his best book yet. Essential reading.” —Elizabeth Hand, author of A Haunting on the Hill and Generation Loss

"Elwin Cotman's fiction is genius. Weird Black Girls is full of wry, fantastical twists that are always surprising, always illuminating. I'm enraptured by his writing, his every paragraph rich in wisdom and wit, his stories somehow rough and refined both, a brilliant mix of perversity and common sense, of the sacred and the profane."—Timothy Schaffert, author of The Swan Gondola