Black Women Sci-Fi & Fantasy Authors You Should Read
A Personal Introduction
Like many other genres, speculative fiction was long a realm of white, male authors. The Golden Age of Science Fiction produced masters in the craft -- Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, et al – but very little of the work was produced by women or people of color. When the New Wave of science fiction emerged in the 1960s things began to change and voices began to diversify. Then, in the 1970s, Octavia E. Butler arrived on the scene and paved the way for the subsequent strong voices of black women in spec fic.
An avid reader from a young age, I discovered fantasy and science fiction in the 1970s. Anne McCaffrey and Isaac Asimov were early favorites. I devoured pulp sci-fi and collected the Golden Age authors. Ursula K. Le Guin blew my mind and Octavia E. Butler expanded my world. These days I revel in the diversity of voices and viewpoints in science fiction, which only seems to expand, and is apt for the genre. After all, spec fic is about exploring possibilities and everything being on the table.
I read anywhere from 50 to 80 books a year in a wide range of genres, and in recent years I’ve enjoyed giving myself reading challenges. For example, in 2018 I only read women authors. In 2020 I started the search for black women spec fic authors who weren’t already on my radar. I’m looking forward to a future year when it will be so easy to find copious works that the challenge will be to pare down the list rather than reading absolutely everything by a handful of writers.
In the meantime, the following is an introduction to authors I have read for years and those I’ve only recently discovered.
Taken from us far too soon, Butler’s vivid and realistic prose gave us some unforgettable characters and worlds. Born in 1947, she died in 2006, leaving behind 15 novels, numerous short stories and essays, and an impressive collection of awards and accolades, including Hugos and Nebulas and having an asteroid named after her.
An excellent place to start is with Parable of the Sower and the following Parable of the Talents. Published in the 1990s, the setting is the 2020s and there are some parallels to our times.
Nnedi Okorafor won her first award for writing in 2005 and was still racking them up in 2020. A good place to start with her works is the novella Binti for which she won both a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award. You’ll then want to follow up with Binti: Home and Binti: The Night Masquerade. Set in Africa, her works are vibrant and original, often addressing important issues. And if you like reading a book before it’s put into film, read Who Fears Death before HBO finishes making a series.
I find Karen Lord’s works to be smart and sympathetic explorations of people and societies. Her first novel, Redemption in Indigo is a retelling of a Senegalese folk tale. Her sci-fi novels, The Best of All Possible Worlds and the sequel, The Galaxy Game are now high up on my list of favorites.
Highly accomplished and awarded writer N. K. Jemison crafts original worlds and complex characters with beautiful prose. Start with the Broken Earth trilogy: The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate, and The Stone Sky. If the thought of cities having souls intrigues you, the first of a new trilogy, The City We Became just came out last year.
For as long as Nalo Hopkinson has been around, it’s a little surprising she isn’t better known. Especially considering that she was recently named the 37th Damon Knight Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. She’s long been a master of magic realism influenced by the Caribbean. Start with her first novel, Brown Girl in the Ring, published in 1998.
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And now we come to uncharted territory. I have not read the following three authors, but books by them are in my queue for 2021.
Rivers Solomon - I’m starting with An Unkindness of Ghosts.
Nishi Shawl - The alt-history novel Everfair is set in the Congo and is high up on my “to-read” list.
Tananarive Due - A well-known author of supernatural stories, I’m not sure where to start, because she’s also written a memoir and historical fiction, but I’m intrigued by her first collection of short stories, Ghost Summer: Stories.
About the Creator
Maria Shimizu Christensen
Writer living my dreams by day and dreaming up new ones by night
Also, History Major, Senior Accountant, Geek, Fan of cocktails and camping
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