Science Fiction and Fantasy by BIPOC Authors

Read fantastic fiction by authors of color for creative visions and strange new worlds!

Updated June 5, 2023
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Light from uncommon stars
Aoki, Ryka
Paper Book
Good Omens meets The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet in Ryka Aoki's Light From Uncommon Stars, a defiantly joyful adventure set in California's San Gabriel Valley, with cursed violins, Faustian bargains, and queer alien courtship over fresh-made donuts. Hugo...
Sweep of stars
Broaddus, Maurice
Paper Book
Maurice Broaddus's Sweep of Stars is the first in a trilogy that explores the struggles of an empire. Epic in scope and intimate in voice, it follows members of the Muungano empire - a far-reaching coalition of city-states that stretches from O.E. (original earth) to Titan - as it faces...
Parable of the sower. [online electronic book]
Butler, Octavia E.
Ebook
A New York Times Notable Book: In 2025, with the world descending into madness and anarchy, one woman begins a fateful journey toward a better future. "A stunner." --Flea, musician and actor, TheWall Street Journal   ...
A beginning at the end. [online electronic audiobook]
Chen, Mike.
Ebook
Black water sister
Cho, Zen
Paper Book
A finalist for the 2022 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel One of BookPage's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of 2021 One of Tor.com Reviewers' Choice Best Books of 2021 One of Book Riot's Best SFF Standalones of 2021 "Ghosts. Gods....
The unbroken
Clark, C. L.
Paper Book
On the far outreaches of a crumbling desert empire, two women--a princess and a soldier--will haggle over the price of a nation in this richly imagined, breath-taking sapphic epic fantasy filled with rebellion, espionage, and assassinations.   ...
A master of Djinn. [online electronic book]
Clark, P. Djeli.
Ebook
Nebula, Locus, and Alex Award-winner P. Djèlí Clark goes full-length for the first time in his dazzling debut novel, A Master of Djinn. Cairo, 1912: Though Fatma el-Sha'arawi is the youngest woman working for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural...
The Inheritance of Orquidea Divina.
Cordova, Zoraida.
Paper Book
Perfect for fans of Alice Hoffman, Isabel Allende, and Sarah Addison Allen, this is a gorgeously written novel about a family searching for the truth hidden in their past and the power they've inherited, from the author of the acclaimed and "giddily exciting" (The New York Times Book Review<...
The water dancer.
Coates, Ta-Nehisi
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK * From the National Book Award-winning author of Between the World and Me, a boldly conjured debut novel about a magical gift, a devastating loss, and an underground war for freedom. "This potent book about America's...
The good house.
Due, Tananarive, 1966-
Paper Book
Award-winning author Tananarive Due's spine-wingling tale of supernatural suspense 'waves a stronger net than ever' (Kirkus Reviews) as a woman searches for the inherited power that can save her hometown from the forces of evil.
American war.
El Akkad, Omar, 1982-
Paper Book
Shortlisted for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize A Globe and Mail Best Book A New York Times Notable Book of the Year A Quill & Quire Best Book of 2017 An audacious and powerful debut novel: a second...
Dread nation
Ireland, Justina
Paper Book
New York Times bestseller * Six starred reviews At once provocative, terrifying, and darkly subversive, Dread Nation is Justina Ireland's stunning vision of an America both foreign and familiar--a country on the brink, at the explosive crossroads where race, humanity, and survival meet.<...
Klara and the sun.
Ishiguro, Kazuo, 1954-
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER LONGLISTED FOR THE 2021 BOOKER PRIZE NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE GLOBE AND MAIL, THE GUARDIAN, ESQUIRE, VOGUE, TIME, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE TIMES (UK),...
Black leopard, red wolf.
James, Marlon, 1970-
Paper Book
"A fantasy world as well-realized as anything Tolkien made." --Neil Gaiman "Gripping, action-packed....The literary equivalent of a Marvel Comics universe." --Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times In this epic, internationally bestselling novel from Marlon...
The fifth season
Jemisin, N. K.
Paper Book
At the end of the world, a woman must hide her secret power and find her kidnapped daughter in this "intricate and extraordinary" Hugo Award winning novel of power, oppression, and revolution. (The New York Times) This is the way the world ends. . .for the last time. ...
The vanished birds
Jimenez, Simon
Paper Book
A "highly imaginative and utterly exhilarating" (Thrillist) debut that is "the best of what science fiction can be: a thought-provoking, heartrending story about the choices that define our lives" (Kirkus Reviews, Best Debut Fiction and Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of...
The space between worlds.
Johnson, Micaiah
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE * An outsider who can travel between worlds discovers a secret that threatens the very fabric of the multiverse in this stunning debut, a powerful examination of identity, privilege, and belonging. WINNER OF THE...
The hunger.
Katsu, Alma.
Paper Book
"Deeply, deeply disturbing, hard to put down, not recommended reading after dark." --Stephen King A tense and gripping reimagining of one of America's most haunting human disasters: the Donner Party with a supernatural twist. Evil is invisible, and it is...
The poppy war
Kuang, R. F.
Paper Book
One of Time Magazine's 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time "I have no doubt this will end up being the best fantasy debut of the year...I have absolutely no doubt that [Kuang's] name will be up there with the likes of Robin Hobb and N.K. Jemisin." -- Booknest From #1...
The three-body problem
Liu, Cixin.
Paper Book
The inspiration for the Netflix series 3 Body Problem! WINNER OF THE HUGO AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL Over 1 million copies sold in North America "A mind-bending epic."--The New York Times * "War of the Worlds for...
The low, low woods
Machado, Carmen Maria
Paper Book
From New York Timesbestselling author Carmen Maria Machado (Her Body And Other Parties, In The Dream House) comes a story so horrifying you won't dare to forget! There's something in the woods... Shudder-to-Think, Pennsylvania, has been on fire for...
The memory librarian : and other stories of dirty computer
Mona?e, Janelle
Paper Book
New York Times bestseller! In The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer, singer-songwriter, actor, fashion icon, futurist, and worldwide superstar Janelle Monáe brings to the written page the Afrofuturistic world of one of her critically acclaimed albums,...
The daughter of Doctor Moreau : a novel
Moreno-Garcia, Silvia
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the bestselling author of Mexican Gothic and Velvet Was the Night comes a lavish historical drama reimagining of The Island of Doctor Moreau set against the backdrop of nineteenth-century Mexico. "This is...
Noor. [online electronic book]
Okorafor, Nnedi
Ebook
From Africanfuturist luminary Okorafor comes a new science fiction novel of intense action and thoughtful rumination on biotechnology, destiny, and humanity in a near-future Nigeria. Anwuli Okwudili prefers to be called AO. To her, these initials have always stood for Artificial...
Son of the storm. [online electronic book]
Okungbowa, Suyi Davies
Ebook
"A vibrant tale of betrayal, intrigue, and revolution." --Anthony Ryan, author of The Pariah From city streets where secrets are bartered for gold to forests teeming with fabled beasts, a sweeping epic of forgotten ...
The mimicking of known successes
Older, Malka
Paper Book
"Every once in a while, a book comes along that is both a comfort read and a rousing, fist-pumping adventure, and The Mimicking of Known Successes absolutely is both of those things. An utter triumph."--Charlie Jane Anders A Hugo Award nominee for Best Novella
Boy, snow, bird.
Oyeyemi, Helen
Paper Book
In the winter of 1953, Boy Novak arrives by chance in a small town in Massachusetts,  looking, she believes, for beauty--the opposite of the life she's left behind in  New York . She marries a local widower and becomes stepmother to his winsome  daughter, Snow Whitman. A wicked...
Black sun.
Roanhorse, Rebecca.
Paper Book
From the New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars: Resistance Reborn comes the "engrossing and vibrant" (Tochi Onyebuchi, author of Riot Baby) first book in the Between Earth and Sky trilogy inspired by the civilizations of the Pre-Columbian Americas and woven into a...
New suns : original speculative fiction by people of color
Shawl, Nisi
Paper Book
Winner of the 2020 Locus, World Fantasy, British Fantasy, Ignyte, and Brave New Words Awards. "There's nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns," proclaimed Octavia E. Butler. New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color...
Chilling effect
Valdes, Valerie
Paper Book
"Jam-packed with weird aliens, mysterious artifacts, and lovable characters... a tremendous good time and an impressive debut." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred) A hilarious, offbeat debut space opera that skewers everything from pop culture to video games and features an irresistible foul...
Zone one : a novel.
Whitehead, Colson, 1969-
Paper Book
In this wry take on the post-apocalyptic horror novel, a pandemic has devastated the planet. The plague has sorted humanity into two types: the uninfected and the infected, the living and the living dead. Now the plague is receding, and Americans are busy rebuild­ing civilization under...
Love after the end : an anthology of Two-spirit & Indigiqueer speculative fiction
Whitehead, Joshua (Writer)
Paper Book
This exciting and groundbreaking fiction anthology showcases a number of new and emerging 2SQ (Two-Spirit and queer Indigenous) writers from across Turtle Island. These visionary authors show how queer Indigenous communities can bloom and thrive through utopian narratives that detail the vivacity...
How to live safely in a science fictional universe
Yu, Charles
Paper Book
National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Award winner Charles Yu delivers his debut novel, a razor-sharp, ridiculously funny, and utterly touching story of a son searching for his father . . . through quantum space-time. nbsp; Minor Universe 31 is a vast story-space on the outskirts of...

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