Red Emma’s

The Dead Don’t Need Reminding is a braided story of Julian Randall’s return from the cliff edge of a harrowing depression and his determination to retrace the hustle of a white-passing grandfather to the Mississippi town from which he was driven amid threats of tar and feather.

Alternatively wry, lyrical, and heartfelt, Randall transforms pop culture moments into deeply personal explorations of grief, family, and the American way. He envisions his fight to stay alive through a striking medley of media ranging from Into the Spiderverse and Jordan Peele movies to BoJack Horseman and the music of Odd Future. Pulsing with life, sharp, and wickedly funny, The Dead Don’t Need Reminding is Randall’s journey to get his ghost story back.

“The Dead Don't Need Reminding is the—and I mean thee—freshest example of why them folks didn't want us reading, writing, queering, and questioning. I don’t need a decade to know Randall has made a forever classic. And we, the Dead, so needed it.” —Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy

Julian Randall is a contributor to the #1 New York Times _bestseller _Black Boy Joy and his middle-grade novel, Pilar Ramirez and the Escape From Zafa, was published by Holt in 2022. He has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Tin House, and Milkweed Editions. He is the winner of the 2019 Betty Berzon Emerging Writer Award from the Publishing Triangle, the 2019 Frederick Bock Prize, and a Pushcart prize. His poetry has been published in The New York Times Magazine, Ploughshares, and POETRY. His first book, Refuse, won the Cave Canem Poetry Prize and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. He lives in Chicago.

Miriam Harris is a neurodivergent, queer, Black poet, food anarchist, educator, and root worker from Baltimore City. Miriam's lifelong work is that of Black survivorship and community cultivation. She has been a full-time educator in Philly's public schools since 2016, as well as a performance poet, teaching artist and community organizer since 2011. Her poetry explores concepts of ancestral memory, righteous anger, self-exploration, and the human consequences of structural racism. Miriam is a 2019 and 2020 Philly Pigeon Fellow, and a 2020 Pink Door Fellow. Her work can be found in Apiary Magazine's 2020 issue. Miriam has performed and taught writing workshops at schools across the country, and has earned four international slam poetry championship titles, including the Feminine Empowerment Movement Slam (2018), College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational (2015, 2016), and Brave New Voices (2015). Miriam is currently a full time administrator in the Philadelphia School District as well as a self-taught chef and baker.