Speculative Fiction by Black Writers

February is Black History Month, and most of us don’t think of science fiction when we commemorate all the great African American literature that we have to enjoy. Last year's release of Acacia , the first of a planned fantasy trilogy by black historical-fiction writer David Anthony Durham, brought attention to the small number of black writers writing speculative fiction.

In a July 2007 Boston Globe interview, Durham said that Acacia had been in the back of his mind since the late 1990s. What spurred him to write the trilogy was "The Lord of the Rings" films. Durham watched the three movies many times, and was frustrated by the almost mono-racial cast of characters, where "the only people of color who didn't have speaking lines were the minions imported for the dark lords."

To find out more about speculative fiction by black authors, visit the Carl Brandon Society and Afrofuturism.

And listen to an NPR piece at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12742905

Recommended titles at the Austin Public Library

The Coyote Kings of the Space Age Bachelor Pad by Minister Faust
Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora
Dark Matter: Reading the Bones edited by Sheree Thomas
Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
Futureland by Walter Mosley
Iron Shadows by Steven Barnes
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due
So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction & Fantasy
edited by Nalo Hopkinson and Uppinder Mehan