For the past month I've been enjoying author Carleen Brice's White Readers Meet Black Authors, where she's declared December as "Buy a Book By a Black Author and Give it to Somebody White" month. Carleen just wrote an essay for The Washington Post, called Reading Too Much Into Race, which I highly recommend reading.
Carleen was gracious enough to give me permission to repost her recommendations for science fiction by black authors.
My husband, who reads sci-fi, would add Steven Barnes to the list--he particularly enjoyed Blood Brothers
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Posted by Carleen Brice:
Yes, Virginia, black folks write about the paranormal.
The first specific request I received from a white reader was to highlight some sci-fi, fantasy and horror by African Americans. That's really easy to do as that genre or subgenre seems to be really taking off.
There seem to be three big, huge, stand-out writers in this area right now:
Tananarive Due: So far, I've only read her Joplin's Ghost, which I greatly enjoyed (I'd consider it literary fiction). I also have My Soul to Keep, which Stephen King called "An eerie epic...bears favorable comparison to Interview with the Vampire. I loved this novel."
L.A. Banks: She's the NY Times best-selling author of the Vampire Huntress Legend series, the latest of which is The Darkness. I have to admit I haven't read her work yet. The Darkness has been in my to-read pile forever! One big plus for her books is that her vampire hunters come from a wide variety of religious backgrounds, not just Christian. You can see Banks in part of the HBO special Trueblood Lines here.
Brandon Massey: Massey writes suspence thrillers like Don't Ever Tell, which has been called "relentlessly gripping" and "a diabolical rocket sled of a book." Go here for Book Roast's conversation with Massey.
Coincidentally, these three writers have a new book coming out (Amazon says it's available today) together called The Ancestors. Go here to read an excerpt from Due's novella "Ghost Summer," which appears in The Ancestors.
Of course, the grande dame was Octavia Butler. She wrote some deep, disturbing, powerful stuff. I'd start with Kindred and The Parable of the Sower. [Note from Ali: See also Softdrink's review of Butler's Fledgling on Fizzy Beverage]
Walter Mosley writes science fiction in addition to mysteries and other books.
And Colson Whitehead's The Intuitionist might be called speculative fiction? Whatever you call it, it's very good. It's about a black woman elevator inspector in a society in which elevators are BIG things.
In his self-published paranormal novel, A Liar's Tale, Andre Coleman asks, "What would happen if all your lies came true?" Coleman says if you buy the book from him and give it to somebody non-black in December, he'll give you a discount!
Someone else to check out is Nalo Hopkinson, author of Mojo: Conjure Stories and The New Moon's Arms, amongst others.
Jewell Parker Rhodes' new vampire book, Yellow Moon, is supposed to be dynamite! It's her 2nd story about the Voodoo Priestess Marie Laveau.
Afro-Future Females: Black Writers Chart Science Fiction's Newest New Wave Trajectory, edited by Marlene Barr, sounds a little academic, but also very interesting.
The white reader who asked me to highlight black writers in these genres turned me on to fantasy writer Leslie Ann Moore, author of Griffin's Daughter, which is about a half-human, half-elf woman. Check out Moore's great interview with Shauna Roberts here.
Lastly, but not leastly, Tina McElroy Ansa writes sort of African American magic realism that I really enjoy. Baby of the Family actually spooked me. Ugly Ways is one of my all-time favorite books. Ansa started her own publishing house to publish the sequel, Taking After Mudear. Order it directly from her and you might even get an autographed copy, like I did! Because she was also kind enough to send me a signed ARC (which I kept), I gave away the signed copy of the book to the president of the Wits End Book Club.
You might consider joining the Black Science Fiction Society to learn more about up and coming writers in the genre.
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Thanks, Carleen!
Now: Has anyone reviewed any of these? Let me know and I'll link to your review (whether or not you're doing the challenge). Got recommendations for other non-white science fiction authors? Send 'em on over, or leave them in the comments to this post. I'll either write another post or I'll edit to add them. Because Carleen did such a thorough job covering black writers, I'm particularly looking for authors from other minority groups.
Want to read a whole lotta sci-fi books?
Sign up for Becky's 42 Challenge!
"Your mission--if you choose to accept it--is to read, watch, listen, and review 42 sci-fi related items in 42 weeks and 42 days: short stories, poetry, novellas, novels, episodes of TV shows, episodes of radio shows, movies, comic books, graphic novels, audio books, essays or articles about science fiction or science fiction writers, biographies of science fiction authors."
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