the Patent Keepers: Unveiling Forgotten Genius of 150 African American Inventors Through Time and Memory

The Patent Keepers by Matt Morissen is a work of historical fiction that follows Zora James, a disillusioned African American engineer in contemporary Detroit, who discovers a hidden archive of "memory orbs"-mysterious, glowing artifacts that allow her to experience the lives of forgotten African American inventors in vivid sensory detail. Through these time-slip journeys, Zora witnesses the struggles and triumphs of over 150 Black innovators, including Lewis Latimer (carbon filament for electric lighting), Bessie Coleman (first licensed Black female pilot), Granville T. Woods (railway telegraphy and the "third rail"), and Dr. Patricia Bath (Laserphaco Probe for cataract surgery). The novel interweaves Zora's personal fight against systemic erasure in the tech industry with the historical battles these inventors waged against patent theft, racial discrimination, and historical neglect.The book is structured in three parts: first, Zora's discovery of the archive and her initial time-slips; second, a series of biographical chapters that detail the inventors' lives and the systemic barriers they faced (patent bias, segregation, gender discrimination); and third, Zora's efforts to turn her discovery into a public exhibition, confronting institutional resistance, building community alliances, and sparking a cultural renaissance. The novel culminates in a call to action-arguing that justice requires active preservation of cultural memory and that innovation must be inclusive to be truly transformative. Ultimately, The Patent Keepers celebrates Black ingenuity while exposing the mechanisms of erasure that have hidden it from mainstream history.