Ring Shout

Ring Shout, or, Hunting Ku Kluxes in the End Times is a dark historical southern gothic fantasy novella written by American fiction writer P. Djèlí Clark. A hardcover of the novella was published by Tor.com Publishing on October 13, 2020. The story follows Maryse Boudreaux on her quest to hunt and destroy the demons summoned by the Ku Klux Klan known as "Ku Kluxes". She is joined by fellow hunters Sadie Watkins and Cordelia Lawrence, as a supernatural evil is rising in an alternate history of 1920s Macon, Georgia. The novella, according to Clark, had been in development since 2015, and he pitched the work to his editor after establishing a contract with Tor Publishing in 2019. Clark was inspired by various aspects of his previous research experiences concerning Works Progress Administration ex-slave narratives, the music of the ring shout practice, the Gullah culture, and the controversial The Birth of a Nation (1915) film as he developed the novella. Clark also drew inspiration from Beyoncé's music video Formation, his visits to Georgia, hip hop music from his hometown in Houston, Texas, and novels such as Toni Morrison's Beloved. Clark has stated that while he had important themes in mind for the work during its drafting process, leading up to its release, he prefers for his audience to form their own interpretations of the novella and its relevance within recent movements and struggles.