When a Body Sprouts: On BIPOC Bodies and Alternative Futurities in the Anthropocene

Abstract

When a Body Sprouts is a novel of speculative fiction and body horror. Set in the fictional city of Eden Prairie, the novel follows the protagonist, Telli—a transracial adoptee, who lives with a fictional autoimmune disease known as phylloderma: a condition which causes plants to grow outside of her body, generating various symptoms from hallucinogenic behaviours to the tightening of connective tissues. Used to a life of chronic-pain and living paycheck to paycheck, Telli works as a waitress at The Rhino. But when an encounter with her estranged adoptive mother and a Suit causes her symptoms to accelerate, Telli struggles to find meaning in her life as the structural powers that be continue to exploit her labour. Unable to control the constant sprouting of vegetal life and her dreams of faceless workers, Telli copes through cutting, collecting and preserving the very things which harm her. Delving into race, gender, class and environmental complexities, When a Body Sprouts focuses on the painful ripple effect of colonialism on racialized bodies and the more-than-human, while showcasing the capacity for renewal and patching together a fragmented life into something akin to a whole.