A More Diverse Fantasy World

Fantasy and Science Fiction have been the top of my reading lists since I was a teen. I love sneaking off into magical realms and venturing out among the far-off stars. Robots, wizards, spaceships, and mythical beasts; I’ll take them all in the stories I read. These days, it’s the voices of some supremely talented black authors who’ve captured my imagination with every page I turn. Among them, N.K. Jemisin, Marlon James, Tomi Adeyemi, and Nnedi Okorafor.

These authors are changing the face of science fiction and fantasy. We are learning to spread beyond the accepted boundaries of popular genre fiction. Marlon James and N.K. Jemisin are master world-builders, diving us so deep in their works that we come out needing to catch our breath. Tomi Adeyemi forces us to look at the social turmoil in her stories and compare it to what surrounds us today. And Nnedi Okorafor, self-proclaimed Africanfuturist, demands we imagine a broad future for African men and women beyond the repercussions of colonialism and on their own terms.

And there are so many more black authors doing just that. I highly recommend each of these talented authors, and urge everyone to go out there and give them a try. It often feels like diverse voices are crowded out in genre, but the stories they deliver are so worth looking for!