Last week we delved into Literary Fiction; if Science Fiction or Fantasy are more your thing, then pull up your favorite armchair and turn on the reading lamp. Here are four excellent authors of color writing Sci-Fi and Fantasy.
26-year-old Tomi Adeyemi wrote Children of Blood and Bone in response to police shootings of innocent African Americans. Beneath our skins of varying shades and differing features, we are all just “children of blood and bone”. Fantasy is a great way to explore oppression and cruelty metaphorically in a way to help stimulate empathy for real humans being treated so horrifically.
Website: TomiAdeyemi.com
Twitter: @tomi_adeyemi
Facebook: T Adeyemi Books
Nnedi Okorafor’s dual Nigerian-American heritage has given her a wealth of material for fiction that explores a wide range of social issues through a Science Fiction lens. She says, “…I ended up writing science fiction and fantasy because I live on these borders – and these borders that allow me to see from multiple perspectives and kind of take things in and then kind of process certain ideas and certain stories in a very unique way. And that has led me to write this strange fiction that I write, which really isn't that strange if you really look at it through a sort of skewed lens.”
Her Sci-Fi novella trilogy, Binti, is currently being adapted into a TV series by Hulu.
Website: Nnedi.com
Twitter: @Nnedi
Facebook: Nnedi
American psychologist and author Nora Jemisin has won the Hugo Award for Best Novel three times (one of only four people to do so in the 66 years of the award’s existence), for each of the three installments of her Broken Earth trilogy. Her writing also highlights themes of cultural conflict and oppression.
Website: NKJemisin.com
Twitter: @nkjemisin
Nalo Hopkinson is an associate professor in creative writing at the University of California, Riverside. She is the author and editor of a number of works of Speculative Fiction and Fantasy, many of which incorporate elements of Caribbean folklore, as well as being a contributing author to Neil Gaiman’s Sandman Universe graphic novels (House of Whispers).
Website: NaloHopkinson.com
Twitter: @nalo_hopkinson
List compiled by Elle Carter Neal
Tomi Adeyemi
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| Tomi Adeyemi Photo by Larry D. Moore, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link |
26-year-old Tomi Adeyemi wrote Children of Blood and Bone in response to police shootings of innocent African Americans. Beneath our skins of varying shades and differing features, we are all just “children of blood and bone”. Fantasy is a great way to explore oppression and cruelty metaphorically in a way to help stimulate empathy for real humans being treated so horrifically.
Website: TomiAdeyemi.com
Twitter: @tomi_adeyemi
Facebook: T Adeyemi Books
Nnedi Okorafor
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| Nnedi Okorafor Photo by Cheetah Witch - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link |
Nnedi Okorafor’s dual Nigerian-American heritage has given her a wealth of material for fiction that explores a wide range of social issues through a Science Fiction lens. She says, “…I ended up writing science fiction and fantasy because I live on these borders – and these borders that allow me to see from multiple perspectives and kind of take things in and then kind of process certain ideas and certain stories in a very unique way. And that has led me to write this strange fiction that I write, which really isn't that strange if you really look at it through a sort of skewed lens.”
Her Sci-Fi novella trilogy, Binti, is currently being adapted into a TV series by Hulu.
Website: Nnedi.com
Twitter: @Nnedi
Facebook: Nnedi
Nora K. Jemisin
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| N.K. Jemisin Photo by Laura Hanifin - http://nkjemisin.com/about/, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link |
American psychologist and author Nora Jemisin has won the Hugo Award for Best Novel three times (one of only four people to do so in the 66 years of the award’s existence), for each of the three installments of her Broken Earth trilogy. Her writing also highlights themes of cultural conflict and oppression.
Website: NKJemisin.com
Twitter: @nkjemisin
Nalo Hopkinson
 |
| Nalo Hopkinson Photo by Markku Lappalainen - CC BY 4.0 |
Nalo Hopkinson is an associate professor in creative writing at the University of California, Riverside. She is the author and editor of a number of works of Speculative Fiction and Fantasy, many of which incorporate elements of Caribbean folklore, as well as being a contributing author to Neil Gaiman’s Sandman Universe graphic novels (House of Whispers).
Website: NaloHopkinson.com
Twitter: @nalo_hopkinson
List compiled by Elle Carter Neal
These lists are so helpful for those of us who like to read books from a wider range of genres and authors. Thanks, Elle.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome :-)
DeleteThanks for giving me more books to put on my TBR list! I read Adeyemi's first book. It was decent, but then she accused Nora Roberts of plagiarism, not sure why she went there.
ReplyDeleteIt was just a dispute over the title. She's very young, and it appears she learnt a very public lesson. This is what she wrote about it: "update: Nora was kind enough to reach out & explain that today was the first she’d heard of my book. After talking to her, I believe our titles were created in isolation. I’m grateful she explained & I’ve apologized, but I wanted to address it here as I know others were upset too."
DeleteTo be fair, since it was a much bigger blow-up than I realised, I'll also post a quote and link to Nora's response to the incident: "While this writer issued a kind of retraction after I reached out to her, it didn’t stop some of her readers from calling me a liar, and worse. We reached out again, asking her to put out the fire.
Delete"We’ve had no response, not from her, not from her agent.
"Shame on them.
"I had every intention of letting this go, until the flames kept burning, until the attacks kept coming. And nothing was done by the person who lit the match to stop it."
Interesting writers, Elle, and all successful. I found the charge of plagiarism against Nora Roberts particularly foolish, mainly for her not checking with her publisher before making the claim. Seems Ms. Roberts is a target of clueless newbies.
ReplyDeleteMore writers whose works I want to explore! Thank you, Elle. :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Elle, for this terrific resource for people who like to read sci-fi and fantasy. I'm not a fan, but I do applaud these writers for their success.
ReplyDelete