Afrofuturist Literature

Contents

• Fiction
• Poetry
• Speculative Fiction Influences

Fiction

Alexis, Andre

• Childhood: A Novel
• Despair and Other Stories of Ottawa

Amadahy, Zainab

• The Moons of Palmares

Antoni, Robert

• Divina Trace

Baker, Nikk

• “Backlash,” in Night Bites: Vampire Stories by Women

Bambara, Toni Cade

• The Salt Eaters

Barnes, Steven

• Blood Brothers
• Far Beyond the Stars: Star Trek Deep Space Nine
• Firedance
• Iron Shadows
• Gorgon Child
• The Kundalini Equations
• Street Lethal

Bisson, Terry

• Fire on the Mountain
  • An “alternative history” as utopian fable of America premised on John Brown having been successful at Harper’s Ferry. In Bisson’s story, the states south of Virginia form an new, all-back , Marxist nation, Nova Africa, in 1865. In 1948, a second American revolution transforms the northern USA into a socialist democracy. The story looks back from 1959 to John Brown’s raid and the subsequent events through the eyes of a black woman academic from Nova Africa. [Jon-Christian Suggs]

Brown, Toni

• “Immunity,” in Night Bites: Vampire Stories by Women

Butler, Octavia

• Adulthood Rites (Xenogenesis, Book 2)
• Bloodchild: And Other Stories
• Clay’s Ark (Patternist, Book 3)
• Dawn (Xenogenesis, Book 1)
• Imago (Xenogenesis, Book 3)
• Kindred
• Mind of My Mind (Patternist, Book 2)
• Parable of the Sower
• Parable of the Talents
• Patternmaster (Patternist, Book 4)
• Wild Seed (Patternist, Book 1)

Carpentier, Alejo

• The Harp and the Shadow
• The Kingdom of This World
• The Lost Steps

Conde, Maryse

• Crossing the Mangrove
• I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem

Davis, Jack

• Paperbark : A Collection of Black Australian Writings

Delaney, Samuel

• Atlantis: Three Tales
• Babel-17
• The Ballad of Beta 2
  • The book “Ballad of Beta 2″ was … about archeology and linguistics and contextual folk song. An archeology student of the future is trying to decipher a scrap of song lyric which mythologizes a mysterious event that destroyed the population of one of the first “generation ships”, i.e., populations of humans sent out to colonize the stars before faster-than-light drive had been invented. The story is Chip’s gentle critique of academic earnestness and a welcome spoof of it’s overreaching self-importance. But at the end he has academic rigor redeem itself by completely solving the mystery. Great book.” [Carol Cooper]
• The Complete Nebula Award-Winning Fiction of Samuel R. Delany
• Dhalgren
  • “Dhalgren blew my brain apart and reconfigured the bits. Talk about getting hacked. It was years before I’d begin to find words to express what I found so revolutionary about it, and when I discovered that Delany is black I wept.” [Nalo Hopkinson]
• The Bridge of Lost Desire
• Distant Stars
• Driftglass: Ten Tales of Speculative Fiction
• The Einstein Intersection
• Empire: A Visual Novel
• Empire Star
• Equinox
• Fall of the Towers
• Flight from Neveryon (Return to Neveryon)
• Hogg
• The Jewels of Aptor
• Mad Man
• Neveryona, or: The Tale of Signs and Cities: Some Informal Remarks Towards the Modular Calculus, Part Four
• They Fly at Ciron
• Times Square Red, Times Square Blue
• Trouble on Triton : An Ambiguous Heterotopia

Due, Tananarive

• The Between
• My Soul To Keep

Ellison, Ralph

• Invisible Man

Eshun, Kodwo

• “abducted by radio”
• more brilliant than the sun: adventures in sonic fiction [read an excerpt]

Feuser, Willfried E.

• Jazz and Palm Wine: And Other Stories
  • Anthology of African short stories, number 31 in Longman’s Drumbeat series (1981). Includes the following stories: The two Ghelas : a Creation myth / Gerard Felix Tchicaya U Tam’si — The pot of gold / Mouhamadoul Nouktar Diop — Ditetembwa / Clementine Nzuji Madiya — Daddy Mboya’s bloodthirsty ram / Rene Philombe –Tribal marks / Sembene Ousmane — The dark room / Sylvain Bemba — A child in the bush of ghosts / Olympe Bhely-Quenum — The night watch / Jean Pliya –Sarzent the Madman / Birago Diop — The eyes of the statue / Camara Laye — The little railway station / Guillaume Oyono-Mbia — Edda’s marriage / Francis Bebey — Returning to one’s roots, or, The enchanted Citroen / Jean-Batiste Tati-Loutard — Vive Who? / Bernard Dadie — Without hate or love / Eza Boto — The plot / Henri Lopes — Jazz and palm wine / Emmanuel Boundzeki Dongala. The last is definitely science fiction.

Fullilove, James

• Circle of One
• The Stranger

Gomez, Jewelle

• The Gilda Stories
• (ed.) Swords of the Rainbow: Gay and Lesbian Science Fiction

Greenlee, Sam

• The Spook Who Sat By the Door

Hamilton, Viriginia

• The All Jahdu Storybook
• The Dark Way: Stories from the Spirit World
• Dustland (Odyssey 2)
• Justice and Her Brothers (Odyssey 1)
• The Gathering (Odyssey 3)
• The House of Dies Drear
• The Mystery of Drear House : The Conclusion of the Dies Drear Chronicle
• Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush

Harris, Wilson

• Jonestown
• The Palace of the Peacock

Himes, Chester

• Plan B

Hopkinson, Nalo

• Brown Girl in the Ring

James, Kelvin Christopher

• A Fling with a Demon Lover
• Jumping Ship and Other Stories
• Secrets

Johnson, Charles

• Dreamer
• The Middle Passage
• Oxherding Tale
• The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: Tales and Conjurations

Kalu, Peter

• Black Star Rising

Kamau, Kwadwo Agymah

• Flickering Shadows

Kenan, Randall

• Let the Dead Bury Their Dead

Lofton, Saab

• AD

Major, Devorah

• An Open Weave

Marechera, Dambudzo

• The Black Insider

Mordecai, Pamela

• De Man: A Performance Poem

Morrison, Toni

• Beloved
• The Bluest Eye
• Jazz
• Paradise
• Song of Solomon
• Sula
• Tar Baby

Mosely, Walter

• Blue Light

Murray, Albert

• The Seven League Boots: A Novel
• The Spyglass Tree
• Train Whistle Guitar

Naylor, Gloria

• Mama Day

Nichols, Nichell

• (with Margaret Wander Bonanno) Saturn’s Child

Okorafor, Nnedi

• The Shadow Speaker
• Who Fears Death
• Zarah the Windseeker
• Long Juju Man

Okri, Ben

• The Famished Road
• Flowers and Shadows
• Incident at the Shrine
• The Landscapes Within
• Songs of Enchantment
• Stars of the New Curfew

Peebles, Joseph

• The Adventures of New Jack Swing

Perry, Elaine

• Another Present Era

Prevost, Claude-Michel

• “Happy Days in Old Chernobyl,” in Tesseracts 3 and Northern Stars

Reed, Ishmael

• Flight to Canada
• The Free Lance Pallbearers: An Irreverant Novel
• Japanese By Spring
• The Last Days of Louisiana Red
• Mumbo Jumbo
• Shrovetide in New Orleans
• The Terrible Twos
• Yellow Back Radio Broke Down

Rhodes, Jewel Parker

• Magic City
• Voodoo Dreams

Robson, Ruthann

• A/K/A
• “Women’s Music,” in Night Bites: Vampire Stories by Women

Saunders, Charles R.

• Imaro
• The Quest for Cush (Imaro 2)
• The Trail of Bohu (Imaro 3)

Savarin, Julian Jay

• Horsemen in the Shadows

Schuyler, Robert

• Black Empire
• Black No More

Shiel, Matthew Phipps

• The Invisible Voices

Turn of the century West Indian-born British writer of fantastic tales.

Simms, William A.

• Zuro!: A Tale of Alien Avengers

Slim, Iceberg

• Airtight, Willie & Me
• Death Wish
• Doom Fox
• Long White Con
• Mama Black Widow
• The Naked Soul of Iceberg Slim
• Pimp: The Story of My Life
• Trick Baby

Smith, Kent

• Future X

Thiongo, Ngugi Wa

• Grain of Wheat
• Matigari: A Novel
• Petals of Blood

Tutuola, Amos

• Feather Woman of the Jungle
• The Palm-Wine Drinkard and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
• Simbi and the Satyr of the Dark Jungle
• The Village Witch Doctor and Other Stories

Williams, Saul

• She

Winkler, Anthony

• The Duppy

Wright, Linda K.

• “The Last Train,” in Night Bites: Vampire Stories by Women

Poetry

Brathwaite, Kamau

• Black + Blues
• Dreamstories
• Middle Passages
• Roots
• X/Self

Robson, Ruthann

• Masks

Speculative Fiction Influences

Alexie, Sherman

• The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems
• First Indian on the Moon (poetry)
• Indian Killer
• The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
• Old Shirts and New Skins (poetry)
• Reservation Blues: A Novel

Gibson, William

• Burning Chrome
• Count Zero
• The Difference Engine (with Bruce Sterling)
• Idoru
• Mona Lisa Overdrive
• Neuromancer
• Virtual Light

Lem, Stanislaw

• The Cyberiad
• The Futurological Congress (From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy)

Piercy, Marge

• He, She & It

Sterling, Bruce

• The Difference Engine (with William Gibson)Criticism & Theory
• Distraction
  • “The psychology of music and culture do create new spaces – in our minds. That’s where the real change digital media has wrought on, at this point, a global scale. There’s a new book by one of my favorite science ficition writers, Bruce Sterling, called Distraction, that focuses on this kind of issue: it makes it seem like the real social progress of the last 30 years (economic empowerment for people of color, multi-cultural media, more access to education for people of color, and more black people doing just about everything under the sun) – has had a weirdly frightening impact on Republicans and cultural conservatives.” [Paul Miller (aka DJ Spooky)]

Winterton, Jeanette

• GUT Symmetries