“Code Noir contains multitudes. Its characters inhabit multi-layered landscapes of the past, present and future, confronting suffering, communion and metamorphosis. Canisia Lubrin’s prose is polyphonic; the stories invite you to immerse yourself in both the real and the speculative, in the intimate and in sweeping moments of history. Riffing on the Napoleonic decree, Lubrin retunes the legacies of slavery, colonialism and violence. This is a virtuoso collection that breaks new ground in short fiction.”
This debut fiction is based on a true set of fictional decrees passed by France's King Louis XIV in 1685, The fifty-nine articles defined the conditions of slavery in the French colonial empire. Lubrin's work is structured in fifty-nine linked fragments.
The winner receives $150,000 USD while the four shortlisted finalists receive $12,500 each.