City of the Undead

“This book takes us from the city’s origins all the way to Hollywood, and it is long overdue. We are fortunate that Robin Roberts decided to write it. As in all her books, her prose is accessible and her research exhaustive; and that she herself saw a ghost in the French Quarter—well, that’s just lagniappe!” ~Nancy Dixon, editor of N.O. Lit: 200 Years of New Orleans Literature

“This fascinating new study explores New Orleans’s rich tradition of voodoo, ghost, and vampire tales as they have been told in forms ranging from the oral folktale to the urban walking tour to Emmy-winning television shows. While these stories are often told for profit and with the intent of giving audiences a safely contained experience of the supernatural, both individually and taken together they point to an even more terrifying truth: the centuries-old history of racism and sexism that women have braved to claim space for themselves in American history and culture. Highly recommended!” ~Lisa Yaszek, editor of The Future Is Female! series and coeditor of The Routledge Companion to Gender and Science Fiction