Picador signs Black horror anthology curated by Jordan Peele

Picador has signed Jordan Peele’s anthology entitled Out There Screaming, a "master class in horror". Peele is the writer behind the films "Get Out", "Us" and "Nope".

Publishing director Sophie Jonathan acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, in print, e-book and audio from Sarah Harvey at CAA on behalf of Mollie Glick. Penguin Random House will publish in the US simultaneously with Picador on 3rd October 2023.

The "ground-breaking" anthology, curated and introduced by Peele, showcases new stories of Black horror which explore "not only the terrors of the supernatural but the chilling reality of injustice that haunts our world".

The publisher continued: "A cop begins seeing huge, blinking eyes where the headlights of cars should be that tell him who to pull over. Two freedom riders take a bus ride that leaves them stranded on a lonely road in Alabama where several unsettling somethings await them. A young girl dives into the depths of the Earth in search of the demon that killed her parents."

Out There Screaming will feature stories by Erin E Adams, Violet Allen, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Maurice Broaddus, Chesya Burke, P Djèlí Clark, Ezra Claytan Daniels, Tananarive Due, Nalo Hopkinson, N K Jemisin, Justin C Key, L D Lewis, Nnedi Okorafor, Tochi Onyebuchi, Rebecca Roanhorse, Nicole D Sconiers, Rion Amilcar Scott, Terence Taylor and Cadwell Turnbull.