Africa risen : a new era of speculative fiction

From award-winning editorial team Sheree Renée Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, and Zelda Knight comes an anthology of thirty-two original stories showcasing the breadth of fantasy and science fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora. A group of cabinet ministers query a supercomputer containing the minds of the country's ancestors. A child robot on a dying planet uncovers signs of fragile new life. A descendent of a rain goddess inherits her grandmother's ability to change her appearance--and perhaps the world. Created in the legacy of the seminal, award-winning anthology series Dark Matter, Africa Risen celebrates the vibrancy, diversity, and reach of African and Afro-Diasporic SFF and reaffirms that Africa is not rising--it's already here. -- Provided by publisher.

Edition:

First edition.

Contents:

Introduction / The Blue House / March Magic by WC Dunlap -- IRL / The Deification of Igodo / Mami Wataworks / Rear Mirror / Door Crashers / The Soul Would Have No Rainbow / A Dream of Electric Mothers / Simbi / Housewarming for a Lion Goddess / A Knight in Tunisia / The Devil Is Us / Cloud Mine / Ruler of the Rear Guard / Peeling Time (Deluxe Edition) / The Sugar Mill / The Carving of War / Ghost Ship / Liquid Twilight / Once Upon a Time in 1967 / A Girl Crawls in a Dark Corner / The Lady of the Yellow-Painted Library / When the Mami Wata Met a Demon / The Papermakers / A Soul of Small Places / Air to Shape Lungs / Hanfo Driver / Exiles of Witchery / The Taloned Beast / Star Watchers / Biscuit & Milk

Physical Description:

xii, 514 pages ; 22 cm

Genre:

Science fiction.

Fantasy fiction.

Short stories.

Geographic Term:

Africa -- Social life and customs -- 21st century -- Fiction.

Publisher:

Tom Doherty Associates,

Publication Date:

2022

ISBN:

9781250833006

Publication Information:

New York : Tom Doherty Associates, 2022.

Call Number:

AFRICA

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003649327	Adult Fiction	AFRICA	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Winner of the 2023 World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology
Winner of the 2023 Locus Award for Best Anthology

A 2023 NAACP Image Award Nominee
A 2023 British Fantasy Award Nominee

A NPR Best of the Year pick
A Book Riot Best SFF of the Year pick

"[A] magnificent and wide-ranging anthology . . . A must-read for all genre fans."-- Publishers Weekly , starred review

From award-winning editorial team Sheree Renée Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, and Zelda Knight comes an anthology of thirty-two original stories showcasing the breadth of fantasy and science fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora.

A group of cabinet ministers query a supercomputer containing the minds of the country's ancestors. A child robot on a dying planet uncovers signs of fragile new life. A descendent of a rain goddess inherits her grandmother's ability to change her appearance--and perhaps the world.

Created in the legacy of the seminal, award-winning anthology series Dark Matter , Africa Risen celebrates the vibrancy, diversity, and reach of African and Afro-Diasporic SFF and reaffirms that Africa is not rising--it's already here.

Author Notes

Sheree Renée Thomas is an award-winning fiction writer, poet, and editor. Her work is inspired by myth and folklore, natural science and the genius of the Mississippi Delta. She is a co-editor of Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction (Tordotcom) and Trouble the Waters: Tales of the Deep Blue (Third Man Books). Her fiction collection, Nine Bar Blues: Stories from an Ancient Future was a Finalist for the 2021 Ignyte, Locus, and World Fantasy Awards. She is the editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, associate editor of Obsidian, and also edited the two-time World Fantasy Award-winning groundbreaking anthologies, Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora and Dark Matter: Reading the Bones (Grand Central). She lives in Memphis, Tennessee near a river and a pyramid.

Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki is an African speculative fiction writer and editor from Nigeria. He won the Nommo Award for best short story by an African in 2019, the 2020 Otherwise Award, and the HWA diversity grant. He has been a finalist for the Nebula, Locus, BSFA, BFA, Sturgeon, This Is Horror, and Nommo awards. He co-edited the Dominion anthology, is guest editor at Interstellar Flight Press, and editor of the first ever Year's Best African Speculative Fiction anthology. His written works have appeared and are forthcoming in Tor.com, NBC, Strange Horizons , Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores , Galaxy's Edge and more.

Zelda Knight sells books by day at Pride Book Café, and writes sci-fi and fantasy romance at night. She's also the publisher and editor-in-chief of Aurelia Leo, an independent Nebula Award-nominated press based in Louisville, Kentucky. Zelda co-edited Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora (Aurelia Leo, 2020), which has received critical acclaim, and won the 2021 British Fantasy Award for the same anthology. Keep in touch on social media or visit her website!

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Thomas, Ekpeki, and Knight assemble a stellar lineup of 32 writers from across the African diaspora for this magnificent and wide-ranging anthology of speculative shorts. Some stories center on technology, including "IRL" by Steven Barnes, in which the protagonist must contend with the ever-thinning line between virtuality and reality. Others focus on history and politics: Sandra Jackson-Opoku's "Simbi" puzzles through the legacies of slavery and exploitation of labor, while in Wole Talabi's "A Dream of Electric Mothers," a woman consults a supercomputer containing the memories of her countryfolk to determine whether to go to war. Akua Lezli Hope's "The Papermakers," meanwhile, takes the anthology in a breezy and slightly surreal direction with the story of an interracial relationship in a papermaking guild. If none of the stories stand out, it's because each is as masterful as the next. This weighty sampler is best read slowly to give each writer their due before moving on to the next. It's an impressive survey of contemporary Black SFF that should be a must-read for all genre fans. (Nov.)

Library Journal Review

Locus and World Fantasy finalist Thomas, Nommo Award--winning speculative author Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, and Zelda Knight, a USA Today best-selling author and British Fantasy Award--winning editor, join forces to present 32 original stories highlighting the power of fantasy and SF from Africa and the African diaspora. With a 50,000-copy first printing.