Escape Pod 213: A Monkey Will Never Get Rid of Its Black Hands
A Monkey Will Never Get Rid of Its Black Hands
By Rachel Swirsky
Papa and Uncle Fomba told me if I didn’t join the army, they’d kill me. They didn’t. They cut off my hands.
This was after U.S. forces marched on Syria, but before we invaded Lebanon. On every city block, posters of Uncle Sam entreated every Tom, Duc, and Haroun to get blown up in the name of freedom. Papa and Fomba gave me two weeks to enlist. I ran for Canada instead. They caught me.
About the Author
Rachel Swirsky
Rachel Swirsky was a founding editor of PodCastle, along with Ann Leckie.
Rachel’s short stories have appeared in Tor, Subterranean Magazine, and Clarkesworld, and been reprinted in year’s best anthologies edited by Strahan, Horton, Dozois, and the VanderMeers. She holds an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers Workshop, and graduated from Clarion West in 2005.
Her short fiction has been nominated for the Hugo Award, the Locus Award, the World Fantasy Award, and the Sturgeon Award. She’s twice won the Nebula Award, in 2010 for her novella, The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen’s Window and in 2014 for her short story, If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love.
About the Narrator
Alasdair Stuart
Alasdair Stuart is a professional enthusiast, pop culture analyst, writer and voice actor. He serves on the board of the Escape Artists Foundation and hosts their weekly horror fiction podcast, PseudoPod. Alasdair has been a Hugo and BFA finalist on several occasions, is an Audioverse Award winner for voice acting and has won the Karl Edward Wagner award twice. He writes the award-nominated free weekly pop culture newsletter THE FULL LID. Follow him on Bluesky for daily writing exercises, podcast and movie recommendations, and photos of his cat.
