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Speculative Fiction by Authors of Color

A list of books by authors of color in the speculative fiction realms of fantasy, horror, science-fiction, new weird, slipstream, magical realism, etc.

Young adult version of this list: MG & YA Speculative Fiction by Authors of Color
1

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4.30 avg rating — 187,317 ratings
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2

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4.21 avg rating — 142,663 ratings
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3

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3.93 avg rating — 407,748 ratings
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4

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4.31 avg rating — 237,373 ratings
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5

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3.89 avg rating — 70,510 ratings
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6

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4.21 avg rating — 31,475 ratings
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7

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3.84 avg rating — 634,188 ratings
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8

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3.88 avg rating — 67,901 ratings
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9

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4.30 avg rating — 51,082 ratings
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10

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4.37 avg rating — 18,896 ratings
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11

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3.94 avg rating — 24,019 ratings
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12

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3.84 avg rating — 29,152 ratings
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13

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4.36 avg rating — 20,532 ratings
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14

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3.98 avg rating — 118,832 ratings
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15

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3.95 avg rating — 18,786 ratings
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16

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4.13 avg rating — 33,360 ratings
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17

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3.88 avg rating — 2,702 ratings
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18

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3.85 avg rating — 6,417 ratings
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19

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4.09 avg rating — 266,817 ratings
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20

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4.16 avg rating — 1,333 ratings
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21

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3.77 avg rating — 10,881 ratings
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22

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4.31 avg rating — 144,278 ratings
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23

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3.95 avg rating — 3,429 ratings
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24

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4.15 avg rating — 45,512 ratings
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25

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4.05 avg rating — 32,683 ratings
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26

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4.11 avg rating — 211,150 ratings
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27

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4.15 avg rating — 5,863 ratings
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28

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4.27 avg rating — 245,901 ratings
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29

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3.64 avg rating — 4,948 ratings
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30

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3.95 avg rating — 355,266 ratings
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31

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4.34 avg rating — 2,495 ratings
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32

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3.76 avg rating — 10,119 ratings
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33

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3.99 avg rating — 6,698 ratings
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34

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4.70 avg rating — 137 ratings
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35

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3.49 avg rating — 6,807 ratings
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36

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4.15 avg rating — 2,473 ratings
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36

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3.88 avg rating — 24,670 ratings
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38

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4.27 avg rating — 9,850 ratings
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39

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3.45 avg rating — 17,443 ratings
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40

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3.99 avg rating — 24,669 ratings
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41

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3.80 avg rating — 7,697 ratings
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42

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3.73 avg rating — 16,459 ratings
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43

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3.73 avg rating — 12,383 ratings
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44

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3.73 avg rating — 14,095 ratings
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45

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3.94 avg rating — 246,589 ratings
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46

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3.64 avg rating — 13,287 ratings
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47

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4.34 avg rating — 54,775 ratings
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48

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3.62 avg rating — 7,542 ratings
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49

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3.60 avg rating — 4,720 ratings
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50

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3.62 avg rating — 7,682 ratings
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51

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3.83 avg rating — 2,817 ratings
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52

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4.13 avg rating — 1,588 ratings
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53

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3.96 avg rating — 59,357 ratings
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54

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3.57 avg rating — 10,510 ratings
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55

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3.92 avg rating — 833 ratings
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56

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3.55 avg rating — 5,322 ratings
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57

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3.94 avg rating — 3,745 ratings
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58

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3.79 avg rating — 12,951 ratings
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59

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4.26 avg rating — 93,858 ratings
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60

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3.98 avg rating — 1,156 ratings
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61

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4.13 avg rating — 128,569 ratings
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62

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4.11 avg rating — 916,611 ratings
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63

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3.64 avg rating — 11,094 ratings
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63

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3.91 avg rating — 1,489 ratings
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65

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3.80 avg rating — 18,695 ratings
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66

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4.35 avg rating — 121,430 ratings
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67

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3.67 avg rating — 2,603 ratings
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68

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4.08 avg rating — 2,144 ratings
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69

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3.57 avg rating — 8,762 ratings
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70

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3.71 avg rating — 38,267 ratings
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71

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3.71 avg rating — 62,792 ratings
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72

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3.56 avg rating — 96,740 ratings
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72

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4.19 avg rating — 47,628 ratings
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74

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3.62 avg rating — 9,772 ratings
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75

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4.20 avg rating — 888 ratings
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76

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3.71 avg rating — 89,663 ratings
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77

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4.29 avg rating — 195 ratings
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78

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3.80 avg rating — 30,975 ratings
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79

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3.26 avg rating — 23,199 ratings
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80

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3.71 avg rating — 3,046 ratings
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81

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3.89 avg rating — 60,820 ratings
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82

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3.94 avg rating — 969 ratings
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83

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4.52 avg rating — 155,584 ratings
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84

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3.94 avg rating — 16,262 ratings
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85

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3.92 avg rating — 1,086 ratings
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85

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4.01 avg rating — 12,822 ratings
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87

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3.76 avg rating — 17,699 ratings
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88

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3.76 avg rating — 4,085 ratings
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89

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4.42 avg rating — 62,646 ratings
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90

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4.19 avg rating — 20,521 ratings
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91

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3.80 avg rating — 1,859 ratings
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91

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4.05 avg rating — 111,307 ratings
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93

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3.90 avg rating — 30,190 ratings
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94

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3.04 avg rating — 839 ratings
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95

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3.98 avg rating — 1,647 ratings
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96

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3.75 avg rating — 3,587 ratings
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97

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4.27 avg rating — 80,550 ratings
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98

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2.90 avg rating — 190 ratings
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99

by
3.70 avg rating — 80 ratings
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100

by
3.80 avg rating — 3,806 ratings
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479 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Craig Laurance 745 books
938 friends
Valjeanne 435 books
296 friends
Mawgojzeta 2957 books
87 friends
Diana 7795 books
100 friends
Jeru 280 books
7 friends
HoneyySunshyne 93 books
27 friends
Steven 4217 books
2508 friends
Andrew 8812 books
468 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-11 of 11 (11 new)

dateDown arrow    newest »

message 1: by Shawn (new)

Shawn Conroy This looks like a good list and I plan to look into these books. I looked up lists like this today after reading Beyond ‘Game of Thrones’: Exploring diversity in speculative fiction:
The last 15 years or so, however, have seen the growing prominence of strong SFF writers of color—so many you could almost start throwing out names at random: Nnedi Okorafor, Samit Basu, Hiromi Goto, Nisi Shawl, Vandana Singh, Karen Lord or the particularly beloved Nalo Hopkinson, who has become a popular speaker at science-fiction conventions and helped found the Carl Brandon Society, an organization devoted to exploring race and ethnicity in speculative fiction.

The only author from that list not represented here is Samit Basu. Thanks for collecting this list and voting, everyone.


message 2: by Anfenwick (new)

Anfenwick Interesting list, but it's a bit hard to understand the definition. Is it really the intention to include all authors of speculative fiction who aren't white? All the Japanese authors? Authors of Indian and African ancestry in the same list, regardless of culture and place of residence? Shouldn't Salman Rushdie be in then?

I added a couple of books by African authors which I consider speculative fiction, though both are a bit different from western-style SF. I think one of the issues with diversity in this genre is that when authors root their work in non-western traditions they can easily get overlooked. Their books just look and sound a bit different from many people's expectations of the genre.


message 3: by Sarah (new)

Sarah I'm removing Zoo City since the author's white.


message 4: by Kaion (last edited Dec 09, 2015 11:02PM) (new)

Kaion This is a really hard list to find! I sort of made a duplicate list, so I'm pasting this list of resources over. I wasn't able to add every book mentioned (ran out of votes), so feel free to peruse the the links and all some more!

Links/credit --
Crowdsourcing the Essentials: Non-US, PoC Sci-Fi and Fantasy:
http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/...
Mindblowing Science Fiction by POC:
http://theangryblackwoman.com/2009/08...
Recommend some non-straight/white/male/anglo SFF anthologies:
http://press.futurefire.net/2013/04/r...



Extended reading, etc:
Notes on Science Fiction and Fantasy in Latin America:
http://nova-sf.de/internova/?p=222
What would a non-Anglocentric understanding of science fiction and fantasy look like?:
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2013/2...


Relevant listopias:
Afrofuturiusm
Translated Speculative Fiction
Fantasy Novels by Women of Color
Non-Caucasian Protagonists in Science Fiction Fantasy Horror and Paranormal Romance
Award-nominated Asian SFF writers
Fantasy Novels by Women of Color
Diverse Sci-Fi
Nerds of Color


message 5: by Kaion (last edited Dec 09, 2015 06:42PM) (new)

Kaion More links --
10 Great Books You Didn't Know Were Science-Fiction:
http://io9.com/10-great-books-you-did...

Science Fiction in India - An Overview:
http://indiascifiarvind.blogspot.com/...
Haikasoru imprint catalog (Japanese books in translation):
http://www.haikasoru.com/our-books/
Malaysian science fiction and fantasy in English:
http://zencho.org/malaysian-science-f...

YA SFF with Protagonists that are Non-White/People of Color:
https://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/1...


message 6: by Jain (new)

Jain Deleted The Bohr Maker by Linda Nagata and Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson; both authors are white.


message 7: by Dustin (new)

Dustin Amazing list!!:))


message 8: by Hana (new)

Hana I'm totally shocked by the term used as a name of this list. You cannot call a list "authors of colour"! did you not know this is rasistic and the term "coloured" or "of colour" was and is used in negative, rassistic connotations.


message 9: by Craig Laurance (new)

Craig Laurance Hana wrote: "I'm totally shocked by the term used as a name of this list. You cannot call a list "authors of colour"! did you not know this is rasistic and the term "coloured" or "of colour" was and is used in ..."

You're not serious, are you?
Assuming that you're not a troll, "person of colo(u)r" has been the accepted term for 20+ years in English. "Colored" is simply out of date, and not necessarily racist.


message 10: by Hana (new)

Hana Craig wrote: "Hana wrote: "I'm totally shocked by the term used as a name of this list. You cannot call a list "authors of colour"! did you not know this is rasistic and the term "coloured" or "of colour" was an..."

No I'm not a troll, and yes I was serious. My first language is not english and this two terms sounds equal to me. Thanks for explanation though!


message 11: by A (new)

A Rosso Bioy Casares "colored"? haha


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