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Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Book Lists

A Crash Course in the History of Black Science Fiction

A Crash Course in the History of Black Science Fiction

A Crash Course in the History of Black Science Fiction is an annotated list of 40+ black science fiction works, created by author Nisi Shawl, that are important to your understanding of its history. Some of these works could be construed as fantasy rather than science fiction. The distinction between these two imaginative genres is often blurred, and it's especially hard to make out their boundaries when exploring the writing of African-descended authors. Why? Because access to the scientific knowledge from which SF often derives has been denied to people of the African diaspora for much of history. Also, it's sometimes difficult to understand the history of black science fiction without reference to the history of black fantasy.

Our thanks to Nisi Shawl for allowing us to reproduce the list here. Please see the original post for this list on their blog or the re-post on the Carl Brandon Society blog.

 1. (1862)
 2. (1887)
 3. (1903)
 4. (1920)
 5. (1954)
 6. (1968)
 7. (1969)
 8. (1972)
 9. (1972)
 10. (1974)
 11. (1977)
 12. (1979)
 13. (1981)
 14. (1984)
 15. (1983)
 16. (1988)
 17. (1990)
 18. (1992)
 19. (1998)
 20. (1998)
 21. (1999)
 22. (2000)
 23. (2000)
 24. (2001)
 25. (2003)
 26. (2003)
 27. (2004)
 28. (2005)
 29. (2006)
 30. (2008)
 31. (2010)
 32. (2010)
 33. (2010)
 34. (2011)
 35. (2011)
 36. (2011)
 37. (2012)
 38. (2012)
 39. (2013)
 40. (2014)
 41. (2014)
 42. (2015)