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Afro-Centered Futurisms in Our Speculative Fiction
In this vibrant and approachable book, award-winning writers of black speculative fiction bring together excerpts from their work and creative reflections on futurisms with original essays.
Features an introduction by Suyi Okungbowa.
Afro-Centered Futurisms in Our Speculative Fiction showcases creative-critical essays that negotiate genre bending and black speculative fiction with writerly practice. As Afrodecendant peoples with lived experience from the continent, award-winning authors use their intrinsic voices in critical conversations on Afrofuturism and Afro-centered futurisms. By engaging with difference, they present a new kind of African study that is an evaluative gaze at African history, African spirituality, Afrosurrealism, "becoming," black radical imagination, cultural identity, decolonizing queerness, myths, linguistic cosmologies, and more.
Contributing authors – Aline-Mwezi Niyonsenga, Cheryl S. Ntumy, Dilman Dila, Eugen Bacon, Nerine Dorman, Nuzo Onoh, Shingai Njeri Kagunda, Stephen Embleton, Suyi Okungbowa, Tobi Ogundiran and Xan van Rooyen – offer boldly hybrid chapters (both creative and scholarly) that interface Afrocentric artefacts and exegesis. Through ethnographic reflections and intense scrutinies of African fiction, these writers contribute open and diverse reflections of Afro-centered futurisms.
The authors in Afro-Centered Futurisms in Our Speculative Fiction feature in major genre and literary awards, including the Bram Stoker, World Fantasy, British Fantasy, Locus, Ignyte, Nommo, Philip K. Dick, Shirley Jackson and Otherwise Awards, among others. They are also intrinsic partners in a vital conversation on the rise of black speculative fiction that explores diversity and social (in)justice, charting poignant stories with black hero/ines who remake their worlds in color zones of their own image.
Features an introduction by Suyi Okungbowa.
Afro-Centered Futurisms in Our Speculative Fiction showcases creative-critical essays that negotiate genre bending and black speculative fiction with writerly practice. As Afrodecendant peoples with lived experience from the continent, award-winning authors use their intrinsic voices in critical conversations on Afrofuturism and Afro-centered futurisms. By engaging with difference, they present a new kind of African study that is an evaluative gaze at African history, African spirituality, Afrosurrealism, "becoming," black radical imagination, cultural identity, decolonizing queerness, myths, linguistic cosmologies, and more.
Contributing authors – Aline-Mwezi Niyonsenga, Cheryl S. Ntumy, Dilman Dila, Eugen Bacon, Nerine Dorman, Nuzo Onoh, Shingai Njeri Kagunda, Stephen Embleton, Suyi Okungbowa, Tobi Ogundiran and Xan van Rooyen – offer boldly hybrid chapters (both creative and scholarly) that interface Afrocentric artefacts and exegesis. Through ethnographic reflections and intense scrutinies of African fiction, these writers contribute open and diverse reflections of Afro-centered futurisms.
The authors in Afro-Centered Futurisms in Our Speculative Fiction feature in major genre and literary awards, including the Bram Stoker, World Fantasy, British Fantasy, Locus, Ignyte, Nommo, Philip K. Dick, Shirley Jackson and Otherwise Awards, among others. They are also intrinsic partners in a vital conversation on the rise of black speculative fiction that explores diversity and social (in)justice, charting poignant stories with black hero/ines who remake their worlds in color zones of their own image.
- GenresNonfiction
256 pages, Paperback
Published November 14, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 17, 2025
This volume explores the genre of Afro-Centered Futurisms (closely related to Afrofuturism and Africanfuturism, but you will have to read the book to discover why the term Afro-Centered Futurisms is preferred) and presents various authors' perspectives on this type of writing.
These different authors, all connected to Africa in some way, with most having lived experience of the continent, describe how they relate to Afro-Centred Futurisms and how they make use of this mode of writing. Each chapter has a thematic focus, ranging from topics such as spirituality and cosmology, to linguistics, questions of democracy, and exploration of queerness in precolonial Africa. All of these topics are explored through what the editor of the volume Eugen Bacon calls "autoethnography". This means that each author uses the self as a starting point for valuable and rare insight into their interests and writing, research and collaboration processes.
This volume does an excellent job at combining theoretical discussions, practical literary examples, and personal anecdotes and it allows readers to discover many talented African writers!
These different authors, all connected to Africa in some way, with most having lived experience of the continent, describe how they relate to Afro-Centred Futurisms and how they make use of this mode of writing. Each chapter has a thematic focus, ranging from topics such as spirituality and cosmology, to linguistics, questions of democracy, and exploration of queerness in precolonial Africa. All of these topics are explored through what the editor of the volume Eugen Bacon calls "autoethnography". This means that each author uses the self as a starting point for valuable and rare insight into their interests and writing, research and collaboration processes.
This volume does an excellent job at combining theoretical discussions, practical literary examples, and personal anecdotes and it allows readers to discover many talented African writers!
December 7, 2024
A really interesting collection. I found the collection of essays as a whole, and how they interacted, more interesting than anyone essay.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews