Introduction : Southern black writers no matter where they are born -- Such a frightening musical form : James Baldwin's Blues for Mister Charlie (1964) -- Fear of manhood in the wake of systemic racism in Ernest J. Gaines's "Three men" (1968) -- The irresistible appeal of slavery : fear of losing the self in Octavia E. Butler's Kindred (1979) -- Owning the script, owning the self : transcendence of fear in Sherley Anne Williams's Dessa Rose (1986) -- 10,000 miles from Dixie and still in the South : fear of transplanted racism in Yusef Komunyakaa's Vietnam poetry : Dien cai dau (1988) -- Fear of family, Christianity, and the self : Southern black "othering" in Randall Kenan's A visitation of spirits (1989) -- A haunting diary and a slasher quilt : using dynamic folk communities to combat terror in Phyllis Alesia Perry's Stigmata (1998) -- Domesticating fear : Tayari Jones's mission in Leaving Atlanta (2002) -- The worst fear imaginable : black slave owners in Edward P. Jones's The known world (2003) -- No fear; or, autoerotic creativity : how Raymond Andrews pleasures himself in Baby Sweet's (1983).