Afrofuturism Recommended Reading List
Fiction
Andre Alexis (Canadian), Childhood: A Novel, Despair and Other Stories of Ottawa
Zainab Amadahy, The Moons of Palmares
Robert Antoni, Divina Trace
Toni Cade Bambara, The Salt Easters
Steven Barnes, Blood Brothers, Firedance, Iron Shadows, Gorgon Child, The Kundalini Equations, Street Lethal
Jennifer Marie Brissett, Elysium
Octavia Butler, Lilith’s Brood (Dawn, Imago, Adulthood Rites), Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents, Bloodchild and Other Stories (“Bloodchild”), Seed to Harvest (Wild Seed, Mind of My Mind, Clay’s Arc, Patternmaster), Fledgeling, Kindred, Survivor
Samuel Delaney, Babel-17, Dhalgren, Empire Star, The Einstein Intersection, The Fall of the Towers, Hogg, Trouble on Triton, Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, Tales of Nevèrÿon,
Maryse Conde, Crossing the Mangrove, I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem, Windward Heights, Segu
W.E.B. DuBois, “The Comet,” “The Princess Steel”
Tananarive Due, The Between, My Soul to Keep, The Good House, Ghost Summer (collection of short stories)
Jewelle Gomez, The Gilda Stories
Sam Greenlee, The Spook Who Sat by the Door
Andrea Hairston, “Griots of the Galaxy,” Will do Magic for Small Change, Redwood and Wildfire, Mindscape
Chester Himes, Plan B
Nalo Hopkinson, Brown Girl in the Ring, Midnight Robber, Sister Mine, The Salt Roads, Skin Folk (short story collection), Falling in Love with Hominids (short story collection)
Kelvin Christopher James, A Fling with a Demon Lover, Jumping Ship and Other Stories, Secrets
N.K. Jemisin, The Fifth Season, Inheritance Trilogy
Alaya Dawn Johnson, Love Is the Drug
Charles Johnson, Dreamer, The Middle Passage, Oxherding Tale, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: Tales and Conjurations
Toni Morrison, Beloved, The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Sula, Tar Baby, Jazz, Paradise
Walter Mosely, Blue Light, The Tempest Tales
Albert Murray, The Seven League Boots: A Novel, The Spyglass Tree, Train Whistle Guitar
Gloria Naylor, Mama Day
Nnedi Okorafor– Binti, Binti 2: Home, Binti: Night Masquerade, Who Fears Death, Remote Control, “Hello Moto” in Kabu Kabu (short story collection), Lagoon, The Book of Phoenix
Rasheedah Phillips, Recurrence Plot
Jewel Parker Rhodes, Magic City, Voodoo Dreams
Charles Saunders, Imaro, The Quest for Cush, The Trail of Bohu, Nyumbani Tales
George Schuyler, Black No More
Nisi Shawl, Everfair, Filter House (collection of short stories), Something More and More (collection of stories and essays)
Sherri L. Smith, Orleans
Sheree R. Thomas, Sleeping under the Tree of Life, Shotgun Lullabies (collections of stories and poems)
Colson Whitehead, The Intuitionist, Zone One, The Underground Railroad
Children’s Literature
Zetta Elliott, Dragons in a Bag, The Phoenix on Barklay Street, Dayshaun’s Gift, The Magic Mirror, The Boy in the Bubble
Virginia Hamilton, The All Jahdu Storybook, The Dark Way: Stories from the Spirit World, Dustland, Justice and Her Brothers, The Gathering, The House of Dies Drear, The Mystery of Drear House: The Conclusion of the Dies Drear Chronicle, Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush
Robert B. Herring, Jr., Josh and his Superhero Booger Friends
Nnedi Okorafor—Long Juju Man, Iridessa and the Secret of the Never Mind, Chicken in the Kitchen
Jewell Parker Rhodes, Ghost Boys, Ninth Ward, Sugar, Bayou Magic
Maiya Williams, The Golden Hour, The Hour of the Cobra, The Hour of the Outlaw
Young Adult Literature
Tomi Adeyami, Children of Blood and Bone
Constance Burris, Coal, Chancedony, Black Beauty, Jade
K.T. Conte, Awoke
Zetta Elliott, Ship of Souls, The Deep, The Door at the Crossroads, Mother of the Sea, the Return, A Wish after Midnight
Shannon Freeman, Listed, The Accident, Taken, A Port in Pieces, The Public Eye, Deported
Robert B. Herring, Jr., Scars of a Magician
Shannon Humphrey, Hope Defined, Skin Trials, A Perfect Society
Wendy Raven McNair, Asleep, Awake
J. Moon, Book of the Annointed
Nnedi Okorafor—Akata Witch, Akata Warrior, Zahrah the Windseeker, The Shadow Speaker
Mila N. Sankale, Anathema, Runespeaker
Poetry
Linda D. Addison, Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Grey Ashes
Aku Leslie Hope, Them Gone
Gary Jackson, Missing You, Metropolis and poems in Callaloo, Tin House, 32 Poems
Airea D. Matthews, Simulacra
Ishmael Reed, poems
Sofia Samatar, “The Sand Diviner,” “Notes Towards a Theory of Quantum Blackness”
Traci K. Smith, Life on Mars, The Body’s Question, Duende
Naru Sundar, “Origami Crane / Light-Defying Spaceship”
LaSahwn M. Wandak, poems in Strange Horizons, Ideomancer, Daily Science Fiction
Francis Wesley, poems in Disturbed, Star*Line, Prune Juice, Scifaikuest, Illumen, Martian Wave, Trysts of Fate, and more
Drama
Andrea Hairston, Lonely Stardust (collection of plays, speeches, and essays)
Anthologies:
Blacktastic! The Blacktasticon 2018 Anthology, edited by Milton J. Davis
Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora, edited by Sheree R. Thomas
Dark Matter: Reading the Bones, edited by Sheree R. Thomas
Dark Universe, edited by Milton Davis and Gene Peterson
Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond, edited by Bill Campbell, Edward Austin Hall (not all writers collected here are Black; those that are include Victor La Valle, Ibi Zoboi, Charles R. Saunders, Chinelo Onwualu, Tobias Bucknell, Minister Faust, Linda D. Addison, C. Renee Stephens, Sophia Samatar, Greg Tate, Lisa Allen-Agostini, George S. Walker, Tenea D. Johnson, Nisi Shawl)
Comics (characters)
Black Panther (Marvel)
Luke Cage (Marvel)
Cyborg (DC)
War Machine (Marvel)
Moon Girl (Marvel)
Amanda Waller (Suicide Squad, DC)
Miles Morales (Marvel)
Storm (X-Men, Marvel)
Bishop (X-Men, Marvel)
Misty Night (Marvel)
Batwing (DC)
Static Shock (DC)
Film & TV
Afronauts
Afro Samurai
After Earth
Black Lightning (TV)
Black Panther (2010, 2018)
Black Orpheus
Blackula
Blade
Brightness
The Brother from Another Planet
Brown Girl Begins (based on the novel Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson)
Cosmic Slop (TV)
Crumbs
Daughters of the Dust
Dawn (Ava DuVernay, based on the trilogy by Octavia Butler, coming to TV)
Get Out
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
Hello Rain
The Last Angel of History
Luke Cage (TV)
An Oversimplification of Her Beauty
Sorry to Bother You
Space is the Place (Sun Ra)
The Spook Who Sat by the Door
Steel
They Charge for the Sun
To Catch A Dream (Vimeo)
Welcome II the Terrordome
Who Fears Death (HBO, forthcoming)
The Wiz
Woman in Motion
Music
Sun Ra
George Clinton’s Parliament Funkadelic
Flying Lotus
Solange Knowles
Erykah Badu
Janelle Monae, The Electric Lady
OutKast, ATliens
Rihanna
Thundercat
Criticism/Scholarship
Reynaldo Anderson and Charles E. Jones, editors, Afrofuturism 2.0: The Rise of Afro-Blackness
Mark Dery, “Black to the Future” in Flame Wars: The Discourse of Cyberculture (1994, Duke UP)
Andrea Hairston, “Prophetic Artists: Octavia Butler and African Americans Writing Fantastic Literature” (in Impolitic! By Andrea Hairston and Debbie Notkin)
Samuel Delany, “Racism and Science Fiction”
Kristen Lillvis, Posthuman Blackness and the Black Female Imagination
Rasheedah Phillips, Black Quantum Futurism Theory and Practice Vol. 1
Ytasha L. Womack, Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture, (electronic copy, PSU libraries)
Brave New Souls (documentary)
Sofia Samatar “Notes Towards a Theory of Quantum Blackness”
(last update August 27, 2018)