Best Black Science Fiction Writers in America

Steven Barnes is not only a TV writer who won an Emmy for his “Outer Limits” episode called “A Stitch in Time,” he’s also a prolific author of science fiction, fantasy, and mystery novels and graphic novel scripts. Publishing works since 1979, Barnes made the New York Times bestseller list in 2004 with his “Star Wars” novel “The Cestus Deception.”

Otherwise Award-winning author Nisi Shawl’s work in the world of science fiction extends far beyond their writing. They have edited numerous anthologies of science fiction, including Afrofuturist and feminist works, and co-written a handbook to help fiction authors write from the experience of someone culturally different from them.

2020 MacArthur Fellow N.K. Jemisin is the first sci-fi writer in history to win three consecutive Hugo Awards for best novel, which she received for her “Broken Earth” trilogy. Her latest novel “The City We Became,” which features the five boroughs of New York City as human avatars and is the first in a trilogy, is a New York Times bestseller. The Times has called Jemisin “the most celebrated science fiction and fantasy writer of her generation.”

A professor of literature and creative writing as well as a literary critic and author, Harlem-born Samuel Delany’s writing career has spanned over half a century. He was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2002, and remains one of the most renowned sci-fi writers of the 20th century, with a style that is experimental in form and perspective. His work often touches on topics of language, sexuality, and race, raising questions around the legitimacy of societal taboos.

Barbadian speculative fiction writer Karen Lord made waves with her first novel, “Redemption in Indigo,” which won numerous honors including the Carl Brandon Parallax Award. Her next novel, a work of social science fiction entitled “The Best of All Possible Worlds,” exploree the subtleties of cultural survival and adaptation against a recognizable genre backdrop of aliens and destroyed planets.

The graphic and genre-bending works of Marlon James explore African mythology, religion, violence, and postcolonialist narratives. His novels may not fit tidily into the confines of traditional sci-fi, but his 2019 novel “Black Leopard, Red Wolf” won the Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Speculative Fiction. James has also received the Booker Prize for his third novel, a non-sci-fi work called “A Brief History of Seven Killings.”

Tananarive Due is an author of speculative fiction – including sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, and horror – as well as a film historian and educator who specializes in black horror and Afrofuturism. Her work spans over 25 years and she frequently collaborates with her husband, Steven Barnes (see above), on screenplays as well as the Tennyson Hardwick mystery novel series.

A full-time psychiatrist who moonlights as a sci-fi writer, Tade Thompson writes on topics ranging from alien invasions to ghosts to superheroes, all with an air of crime and mystery. His accolades include the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the Nommo Award, an honor which has been presented annually since 2017 by the African Speculative Fiction Society.

Tochi Onyebuchi had already written 17 novels by the time he published his first one, “Beasts Made of Night” – a young adult that won the Nommo Award. His 2020 novel “Riot Baby” went on to win five literary prizes, including the World Fantasy Award. The author’s background in political science and law are ever present in his writing, as is his lifelong love of comic books.

Currently the professor of Theater and Africana Studies at Smith College, Andrea Hairston is both a playwright and a theater director, in addition to being a novelist and essayist. Her debut novel, a dystopian science fiction work called “Mindscape,” won the Carl Brandon Parallax Award. Her most recent novel, “Master of Poisons,” is an epic fantasy that weaves folktales into an expansive vision of the future.

Author of both novels and comic book script, Nnedi Okorafor has won numerous prestigious awards including the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Awards. Her Afrofuturist tales, where magic and technology coexist in post-apocalyptic African landscapes, often explore themes of inequality and political corruption through the voices of women.

A former software engineer and bookshop owner who teaches writing courses on speculative fiction, Jennifer Marie Brissett published her first novel, “Elysium,” in 2014 to great critical acclaim. Her second novel, “Destroyer of Light” – a reimagining of the tale of Persephone, set in a distant future of time-traveling AI and genetically altered humans – made Kirkus Reviews’ 2021 Best Fiction of the year list.

grew up in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

A rising star in the sci-fi world, Cadwell Turnbull has published two novels as well as numerous short stories and has contributed to the anthology “Black Panther:Tales of Wakanda.” His debut novel “The Lesson” – set in the U.S. Virgin Islands during an alien colonization – was nominated for multiple awards, and his newest publication, “No Gods No Monsters,” was named one of NPR’s Best Books of 2021.

Nicky Drayden is a systems analyst by day and a speculative fiction queen in an alternate reality. Her short fiction has been featured in over 30 publications and her debut novel “The Prey of Gods” won the Compton Crook Award, which is given annually by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society to the best first novel in the fields of sci-fi, fantasy, or horror.

This up-and-coming author published her first novel, “Do You Dream of Terra-Two?,” in 2019. It was named NPR’s best book of year and won an American Library Association Alex Award. Following a group of teens who are sent to colonize a new planet, the novel explores loss, hope, and coming of age in the merciless expanse of space.

Though best-known for his mystery and crime novels, Walter Mosley also writes for the screen and frequently ventures into the realm of dystopian science fiction. His 2001 post-cyberpunk book “Futureland” explores how technology may drive the class and race divides through nine stories set in a universe where the Constitution no longer applies to individuals.

Alaya Dawn Johnson has written multiple award-winning speculative fiction short stories, and her young adult and adult novels have won Nebula and Andre Norton Awards. Her first YA novel “The Summer Prince” is set in a post-apocalyptic, cyberpunk Brazil controlled by a matriarchal government that sacrifices a king every year.

Jamaican-born Canadian author Nalo Hopkinson weaves Caribbean folklore into her fiction, some of it set in distant futures, and some in magical worlds resembling ours. Hopkinson has edited multiple sci-fi and fantasy anthologies, and in 2020 was named the 37th Damon Knight Grand Master, which is a lifetime achievement award for contributions to literature in the fields of science fiction and fantasy.

Kai Ashante Wilson is the author of critically acclaimed short fiction as well as two novellas – set in universes of magic, demigods, and necromancy – that also feature love between gay men of color. The unapologetic queerness of Wilson’s characters is something we can hope won’t stand out in the near future, as the genre widens to welcome underrepresented voices.

The short stories and novellas of writer and historian P. Djèlí Clark have won multiple Nebula and Locus awards. His 2020 alternate history novella “Ring Shout” follows three demon hunters who are out to destroy the demons summoned by the Ku Klux Klan in 1920s Georgia. It has been slated for development into a television series.

Making a deep impression with their debut novel “An Unkindness of Ghosts,” Rivers Solomon followed up with a Lambda Award-winning second novel, “The Deep.” Solomon’s stories, whether they are set on a generation starship or in an underwater utopian society, explore the legacy of racism in America and the possible futures that could descend from collective trauma.

Author of 21 novels and short story collections, Milton J. Davis has also edited 10 anthologies of fantastic and speculative fiction. He owns a publishing company – MV Media – whose goal is to publish speculative fiction books that positively represent people of color. Milton expertly bends genre, incorporating elements of science fiction, fantasy, mythology, and Afrofuturism into his fast-paced works.

Ishmael Reed is a political satirist who has been active since the early ’60s when he co-founded the “East Village Other,”an underground newspaper. Although he publishes works in numerous genres, including poetry, plays, songs, and essays, he sometimes veers into the realm of science fiction, as best represented in his most famous work, the experimental Afrofuturist novel “Mumbo Jumbo.”

Although the MacArthur and Guggenheim fellow Colson Whitehead also publishes outside the realm of genre fiction, he frequently incorporates speculative tropes into his novels, whether that be zombies in a post-apocalyptic city or an alternate history of the underground railroad. Whitehead’s breakout novel, “The Intuitionist,” utilized elements of sci-fi as well as crime noir, to great critical reception.

An inspiration to a new wave of black speculative fiction writers, Octavia Butler has been called the “mother of Afrofuturism,” and is undoubtedly one of the greats. Her work spans more than three decades and often includes explorations of multi-ethnic community building in post collapse societies, as well as humans genetically merging with aliens, all from the point of view of marginalized identities.