The Dim – Stacy Nathaniel Jackson
Stacy Nathaniel Jackson’s project for the 2024 Jack Straw Writers Program is a novel that he describes as “Epic, leaning speculative fiction, with a horror lens.” The Dim centers on a headhunter who has a genetic mutation that causes his sense of physical pain to be dimmed and how that lack of pain affects him. In his conversation with curator Nisi Shawl, they talk about why the ability to feel pain is important and how elements of his activism and trans identity inform his writing. “Even in this piece that I’ve just written, the grandfather is telling the grandson . . . you not having pain, good for you as a rebel, as a warrior. [A] woman . . . having childbirth, if you didn’t feel pain, this is not good. You may not be able to pick up the signals that you need to.”
Music by EarthtoneSkytone, produced in part through the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
