AFRO-CENTERED FUTURISMS IN OUR SPECULATIVE FICTION

235pp., paperback, Bloomsbury Academic, New York & London, 2025

ISBN: 9798765114674

First published in the USA in 2024.

Introduction by Suyi Okungbowa.

Authors of speculative fiction from the African continent on Afrofuturism and Afro-centered futurisms, using examples from their own work.

Contributions include:

"Cosmologies and Languages Building Africanfuturism" by Stephen Embleton

"Queer Imaginings in Africanfuturism Inspired by African History" by Xan van Rooyen

"A Gaze at Post-Colonial Themes That Re-Envision Africa" by Nerine Dorman.

"With its Janus-like gaze, Afro-Centered Futurisms in Our Speculative Fiction celebrates the artistic and cultural forces flourishing worldwide, bringing together an unprecedented cross-disciplinary selection of sophisticated essays by acclaimed Afrodescendants intent on repurposing storytelling. Momentous and quirky." Dominique Hecq, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia

"This collection of vibrant, insightful, often witty chapters is a deep-dive exploration of African culture/s, histories, futures. It makes a strong case against the notion of a homogeneous 'Africa,' while celebrating diversity, and laying out pathways for co-existence, for collective understandings and values. The writers take their readers into dystopia and cosmologies, inclusive futurisms and imagined realities, while pointing to the critical importance of nomination, identity, and world-making through story. From the south to the north, from history to the future, in philosophical accounts and excerpts from literary works, it offers a dense and brilliantly illuminated report on Africa: on its rich complexity, and its astounding wealth of image, narrative, and philosophies." Jen Webb, Distinguished Professor of Creative Practice, University of Canberra, Australia

Eugen Bacon is an African Australian author. She has won a British Fantasy Award for her non-fiction title, An Earnest Blackness. Her novels include Mage of Fools (Foreword Indies Award Silver), Broken Paradise and Danged Black Thing, and creative work has appeared in Apex Magazine, Award Winning Australian Writing, Fantasy, Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction.