Micro-interview with Saleha Chowdhury

Micro-interview with Saleha Chowdhury, Cover artist of the Noir Fire anthology.

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TFF: How did you go about designing and illustrating the cover for this noir-themed volume?

Saleha Chowdhury: I started by studying imagery surrounding noir-themed works paying attention to common motifs. Traditional imagery like rain, fog, and a cityscape were things I decided to include. Instead of a traditionally male character I chose to have someone more feminine with a sense of style all their own.

TFF: Have you ever seen a statue or a piece of art that you wished was alive?

SC: I wish some pieces of Jean Giraud's fantasy art were real. It would be really interesting to walk around in them and learn more about those worlds.

TFF: What magical power would you like to possess?

SC: I would love the ability to teleport and visit faraway places. Especially natural places that are really out of the way.

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You can find purchase links and more information about the Noir Fire anthology at http://press.futurefire.net/p/noir-fire.html

New Issue: 2022.61

“With a genre like film noir, everyone has these assumptions and expectations. And once all of those things are in place, that's when you can really start to twist it about and mess around with it.”

—Lana Wachowski

Issue 2022.61: TFF Noir

Short stories

• ‘Nightingale’s Lament’, Laura Gregory
• ‘A Prayer to St Jude’, M. Bennardo
• “The Fox and the Snake’, Timothy Yeo
• ‘Salt and Smoke’, Storm Blakley

Novelettes

• ‘avenging the sorrow’, Lam Ning

Cover art by Saleha Chowdhury

Guest editorial by Valeria Vitale

Noir Fire: Cover reveal

The observant and deductive among you will have noticed that Futurefire.net Publishing have been plotting a noir-themed speculative fiction anthology for a while. The print and e-book anthology of 14 stories will appear in a few weeks time, and there will be a sneak preview of a few of the pieces in the next issue of TFF magazine at the beginning of April. Watch this space for announcement of the table of contents. In the meantime, we are excited to share with you the fabulous cover image, which was painted for us by the stunningly talented Saleha Chowdhury.

We wanted a cover image that captured the Noir aesthetic, but with a bit more of a progressive, cosmopolitan, inclusive feel to it; an image ambiguous enough to evoke science fiction or fantasy, but with an explicit cyberpunk ambience; perhaps a female or gender-nonconforming character who was not just a victim or motivator for a mourning male protag.

Saleha gave us all of this in spades, and so beautiful and with layers of creativity to boot! We couldn’t be more chuffed! As excited as we are to share the lovely stories with you, this is just the icing on the cake.

Just wait til you see the glossy high-res version on the cover of the book itself.

New issue 2019.51

“Right now the Amazon, home to millions of my relatives, is burning. If it goes on like this, twenty years from now my house will become a desert and my people will be at risk of becoming history. Governments … are not helping. They promote hate-based narratives and a development model that attacks nature and indigenous peoples. These governments are trying to put us in extinction. They are part of the problem.”

—Artemisa Xakriabá

Issue 2019.51

Flash fiction

• ‘Hysteria’, Katrina Smith (illustrated by Fluffgar)
• ‘Shore Pines and Spider Silk’, Misha Penton (illustrated by Joyce Chng)

Short stories

• ‘Billie the Dragon Slayer’, Alexandra Grunberg (illustrated by Toeken)
• ‘Earthgazing’, Lisa Cai (illustrated by Katharine A. Viola)
• ‘Inanition’, Kate Kastelein (illustrated by Rachel Linn)
• ‘The First Breath after Drowning’, Tannara Young (illustrated by Eric Asaris)

Poetry

• ‘Through the Dark, Persephone Speaks’, Jennifer Bushroe (illustrated by Miguel Santos)
• ‘Daughter’, Eva Papasoulioti (illustrated by Cécile Matthey)
• ‘Riddles of Lunacy’, Rufina Jinju Kang (illustrated by Saleha Chowdhury)

Full issue and editorial

Download e-book version: PDF | EPUB | Mobi

New issue: 2018.47

“I’ve been locked up (for disturbing the peace in Detroit) and I know you got to disturb the peace when you can’t get no peace. Jail is hell to be in. I’m going to see her free if there is any justice in our courts, not because I believe in communism, but because she’s a Black woman and she wants freedom for Black people.”

—Aretha Franklin (on posting bail for Angela Davis in 1970)

Issue 2018.47

Short stories

• ‘The Woman in the Pool’, Isabelle Sanders (illustrated by Fluffgar)
• ‘Uniform of War’, Harry Pauff (illustrated by Carmen Moran)
• ‘Six Kilometers Around’, Meghan Cruickshank (illustrated by Laura Anca Adascalitei)
• ‘Ashen Wings and Lightless Skies’, Amelia Sirina (illustrated by Saleha Chowdhury)
• ‘Last Address’, Brian Olszewski (illustrated by Miguel Santos)

Poetry

• ‘Results of Your Quiz: Which Survivor of the Trojan War Are You?’, Hayley Stone (illustrated by Katharine A. Viola)
• ‘A 구미호 Invites a Soucouyant to a Picnic’, Rufina Jinju Kang (illustrated by Eric Asaris)

Download e-book versions: PDF | Epub | Mobi

Full issue and editorial

New issue: 2018.45

“Révolutionnaires, nous l’étions, hommes et femmes, animés par une telle force de volonté, et une telle volonté de force.”

—Maya Jribi

Issue 2018.45

Flash fiction

• ‘The Good Wife’, Rebecca Buchanan (illustrated by Pear Nuallak)

Short stories

• ‘Where Thorns Can Grow’, Meryl Stenhouse (illustrated by Katharine A. Viola)
• ‘Bite’, A. Poythress (illustrated by Laura-Anca Adascalitei)
• ‘They Built the New Jerusalem on the Ruins of the Old’, William Squirrell (illustrated by Rachel Linn)
• ‘An Argument in a World Full of Wonders’, Omi Wilde (illustrated by Toeken)
• ‘When Dessa Danced’, Donyae Coles (illustrated by Saleha Chowdury)

Poetry

• ‘Mermaid's Comb’, Colleen Anderson (illustrated by Cécile Matthey)

Download e-book version: EPUB | Mobi

Full issue and editorial