“When the Water Stops”

2021 Bacon, Eugen [Matoyo]. “When the Water Stops.” The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 149.5/6 (May/June 2021): 253-256. Rpt. in Languages of Water. Ed. Eugen [Matoyo] Bacon (Fayettesville, GA: MVmedia, 2023), 19-24. PSt

The story is first set in a village where people bleed so that the water can be separated out for use by the community and then in areas where the wealthy have everything they might want or need. The rest of the book consists of various responses to the story including poems, stories, including a number of both by Bacon, and translations of the story into French, Malay (illus.), Swahili, Cantonese, and Bengali. While all the stories and poems in the book are dystopian, those that give the fullest pictures of the dystopia include Andrew Hook, “So Close to Home” (48-55), Oz Hardwick, “Stories from the Sandpaper Tongue” (68-69), Clara Chow, “NEW(er) Water” (78-84), Tamantha Smith, “Old Water” (85-87), Clare Rhoden, “Handsome Fox Thirsts for More” (88-96), Stephen Embleton, “Taking Turns” (101-105), E. Don Harpre, “Downpour” (111-112), Kyongmi Park, “Where (x) (is) Why Diary: Jegu Island Fragments.” Trans. Jill Jones and Rina Kikuchi (118-124), and Nuzo Onoh, “Black Queen” (145-177), which was first published in Earth Day 2022 (April 2022) [Not found]. Hook comments on his “So Close to Home” in “Behind So Close to Home” (178-181). Dominique Hecq comments on “When the Waters Stops” in “When the Water Stops, Again” (182-187), as does Clare Rhoden in “What I See in ‘When the Water Stops’: A Personal Reflection” (188-194}; and Eugen Bacon in “Behind the Water” (195-202). The Black female author was born in Tanzania, lived for some years in England, and now lives in Australia. She trained as a computer scientist (MA and MSc) in England and also holds a PhD in writing from Swinburne University of Technology.