Adult SF by Black authors

[DivaDiane]

What about Tenanarive Due?

[Paul]

Octavia E. Butler, of course
Samuel R. Delany
Tade Thompson's Rosewater trilogy
P. Djèlí Clark

[Shomeret]

Everfair by Nisi Shawl

[Kaa]

My first rec is actually a short story magazine - FIYAH Lit Magazine is fantastic and I'm always discovering new authors from them.

Suyi Davies Okungbowa
Nalo Hopkinson
Kai Ashante Wilson
Nicky Drayden
Temi Oh
Na'amen Gobert Tilahun
Rivers Solomon
Andrea Hairston
Jewelle L. Gómez
Colson Whitehead
Maurice Broaddus
Victor LaValle

[Kaa]

Two other books from my shelves:
A Stranger in Olondria
The River Where Blood Is Born

I also found two lists of recent books:
2020 Adult SFF by African Americans
2019 Adult SFF by African Americans

These lists aren't specifically adult fiction, but that appears to be predominantly what is listed:
African American Science Fiction
Black Speculative Fiction
Afrofuturism

Nisi Shawl put together an annotated history of black science fiction.

And Tade Thompson on the history of African sci-fi, and why we shouldn't be talking about the "rise" of the genre with plenty of good recs

For more African SFF, the Nommo Awards are a great source of recs. It does include some YA and some white African authors, but I've found a lot of great stuff from their nomination and winner lists.

Oh, and Storybundle is currently offering a collection of African Speculative Fiction

Which reminds me that there's lots of good collections out there, including:
AfroSF: Science Fiction by African Writers
Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora

[Anna]

A couple more, I didn't look at Kaa's excellent links to see if they're all listed there.


Karen Lord
Jennifer Marie Brissett
Bethany C. Morrow
C.L. Polk
Deji Bryce Olukotun
Cadwell Turnbull
Helen Oyeyemi

[Penelope]

Valjeanne Jeffers
Aaron Michael Hall
Roxanne Bland
Carole McDonnell
Rorie Still
K. Ceres Wright
James Goodridge
William Hayashi

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Penelope, I'd love to elevate your voice, but as we've discussed, this isn't the way to do it. If you'd like to start a thread for BIPOC authors in our group in the Author's folder, that would be excellent.

In the meantime, I'll do it, if you could please edit your post!

[Kaa]

Penelope reminded me that Balogun Ojetade, Milton J. Davis, and Steamfunk! helped save the steampunk genre for me back in 2013. There are a lot of good authors, including Penelope, featured in that anthology.

[Kaa]

I keep thinking of additional authors/books:
Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Craig Laurance Gidney
Ayize Jama-Everett
Triangulum by Masande Ntshanga
Kiini Ibura Salaam
Renee Gladman

[CBRetriever]

and the Samuel Delany books are very definitely for adults

[Jain]

This is perhaps the least obscure recommendation ever, but the book's often categorized as literary fiction and its genre elements overlooked, so:

Beloved by Toni Morrison

[MadProfessah]

Really?? I love BELOVED but in no way would I consider it science fiction or fantasy... maybe speculative fiction?

[CBRetriever]

MadProfessah wrote: "Really?? I love BELOVED but in no way would I consider it science fiction or fantasy... maybe speculative fiction?"

maybe the ghost makes it speculative/horror?

[Nichelle]

Also Steven Barnes, he's been writing for like, forever.

[Jain]

MadProfessah wrote: "Really?? I love BELOVED but in no way would I consider it science fiction or fantasy... maybe speculative fiction?"

I consider most horror and almost all magical realism to fall under the fantasy umbrella. If a story's like real life except for the inclusion of magical, fantastical, and/or otherworldly elements...then imo that's no longer depicting a real life setting.

[DivaDiane]

I agree with Jain. I found myself defining Toni Morrison’s work (more than just Beloved) as magical realism (that’s just for me though) a magical/fantastical element in an otherwise real life setting. Or maybe urban fantasy without a ton of other elements like vampires or trolls.

[Dawn F]

This is a great collection of names! I know quite a lot of them already, but now I can add even more to my reading list ^^

[Dawn F]

I haven’t read Beloved, but I love magical realism, a subgenre of fantasy, and will definitely be reading it!

[Kaa]

I know I am always offering this advice, but now is a great time to suggest these books and authors to your library, if you have that option. My library won't normally purchase books that are more than a couple years old, but right now they will buy almost any ebook I ask them for.

[Ed]

Washington Post recently had an article about African Speculative Fiction here [paywall].

Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Lavie Tidhar wrote it. They recommended several things. I won't copy all that here because that would be stealing. But, I do wholeheartedly agree with the recommendation for the book of short stories Incomplete Solutions by Wole Talabi.

I took their suggestion to try Omenana online magazine. I read issue 17. I only liked one of the four stories, but it was excellent: No ordinary People by Kingsley Alumona. (Maybe the other 3 stories work for you, but they didn't for me.)

It is the story of a young girl growing up with ESP and having to learn how to control the information she learns. Most stories I've read in the past about kids with ESP have them act like little mature adults. In this one, the kid acts like a kid. The parents take her to a doctor, a preacher, a witch doctor, and a psychiatrist -- in that order. In an SF story from USA or Europe you wouldn't likely see mention of a witch doctor, and might not even see a preacher mentioned.

[Ed]

That article also mentioned Zig Zag Claybourne. I think I'll be trying his work.

[Kristenelle]

Micaiah Johnson 😊

[Ed]

Kaa wrote: " ..."

Thanks for those links, especially the lists by Nisi Shawl and Tade Thompson.

Another one that I love that wasn't on those lists is Black No More by George S. Schuyler, 1931. It is a very dark and cynical satire, which is one of the things I love.

[Ed]

Another old-school author is John M. Faucette, who published in the 1960s.