• Syncopation: A Novel in Verse

Syncopation: A Novel in Verse

by Whitney French

December 9, 2025 | ISBN 978-1-998408-28-3 | 300 Pages

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In the aftermath of a Memory War, society is fragmented into strange new cultures, castes and coalitions. Set against a backdrop of retrofitted food garages, microchip-sorting factories and hyperloop terminals, Whitney French brings us a dazzling novel in verse where memory is the highest currency and love, like all revolutions, is dangerous, unruly and singed with hope. O and Z are two young women searching for purpose in a world where a decades-long earthquake reverberates through the Earth’s crust, and the population scrambles to hide from deadly acid rain. Descended from space pirates, O is drawn to the sky, while… Read more

“Wry, tender and powerfully inventive, Syncopation names the worlds and relations that may yet outlive a ravaged earth. Whitney French is herself a ‘Neo-Griot,’ creating an inhabitable future through rhythm, choral voice and incantatory memory work. This is vigilante storytelling, demanding not only speculative contexts but also generic refusals, a book that honours the sublime forms of love.” – David Chariandy, author of Soucouyant and Brother

"A vivid, compelling, active novel in verse. The world is divided into four quadrants, each plagued by its own unexpected weather. O and Z adore each other through the ruins of memory loss, earthquake, and world collapse, as they travel together towards a new way of being. Whitney French has a wonderful sense of image and true ear for beauty. I loved especially the play with déjà vu, the society of beings who eschew names as a way to stay together, and how Hogan's Alley appears anew as roadway of the future. This is an extraordinary book – original and strange." – Larissa Lai, author of The Tiger Flu and The Lost Century

Events with Whitney French

  • “It was poetry that had its way with me”: An Interview with Whitney French (All Lit Up, 13/11/2025)
    "To be a Black futurist means to use all the tools necessary to imagine Black folks in the future. That can be science, foresight, technology, history, policy, or in my case, imagination via storytelling."

  • Whitney French (she/her) is a writer, educator and publisher. She is the editor of the award-winning anthology Black Writers Matter (University of Regina, 2019) and Griot: Six Writers' Sojourn into the Dark (Penguin Random House, 2022). Whitney is a Black futurist who explores memory, loss, technology and nature in her work. She is a certified arts educator and an Assistant Professor in Creative Writing at the University of British Colombia. She is also the co-founder and publisher of Hush Harbour, the only Black queer feminist press in Canada.