# Black science fiction authors **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 22, 2005, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-science-fiction-authors/286145 "2005-01-22T21:16:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2005, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-science-fiction-authors/286145/1 "2005-01-22T21:16:04Z")
I’m a regular SF reader but off the top of my head I can only think of three SF authors who are black: Steven Barnes, Octavia Butler, and Samuel R. Delaney. Are there others I haven’t thought of? If not, why are there so few black SF authors? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2005, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-science-fiction-authors/286145/2 "2005-01-22T21:55:19Z")
Check [this](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0446677248/qid=1106431453/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/104-7323594-8881507) out. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2005, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-science-fiction-authors/286145/3 "2005-01-22T22:25:02Z")
Jewelle Gomez springs to mind. She also happens to be a triple threat as a minority author – a black homosexual woman! ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2005, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-science-fiction-authors/286145/4 "2005-01-22T23:11:57Z")
I’ve read some of Jewelle Gomez’ work. But, like Tananarive Due or Walter Mosley, I’ve never thought of her as a SF author. I hadn’t heard of Nalo Hopkinson, she’s a SF author I’ve apparently missed. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-science-fiction-authors/286145/5 "2005-01-23T03:38:30Z")
There’s Minister Faust, whose first novel, **[The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad](http://www.sfsite.com/12b/ck190.htm)** was one of the best books I read last year. As to why – early on, SF didn’t really appeal to the black community. It started as a very white middle class phenomenon. So with few readers, you didn’t get many writers. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-science-fiction-authors/286145/6 "2005-01-23T13:18:39Z")
What does a person’s colour have to do with the quality of their writing? ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-science-fiction-authors/286145/7 "2005-01-23T13:49:07Z")
Who’s talking about quality, we’re talking quantity. And I think the genre SF reflects the amount of black writers in general. I getr the impression that there aren’t the same percentage of published black writers as the percentage of blacks in the total population. I suspect this has something to do with social classes, education. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-science-fiction-authors/286145/8 "2005-01-23T16:24:42Z")
Coincidentally, I have a good friend who’s a black writer, and some of his stuff is sci-fi. One of his stories is being published next (this?) year in a collection of sci-fi stories by black writers. His is really creepy, it’s a slightly-in-the-future tale about pedophiles who use life-like sex robots. Raises some Interesting Issues. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-science-fiction-authors/286145/9 "2005-01-23T19:17:33Z")
> [@](#): > > What does a person’s colour have to do with the quality of their writing? Nothing. Why did you raise the issue? ---
**Author:** ![SusanStoHelit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@SusanStoHelit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SusanStoHelit)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-science-fiction-authors/286145/10 "2005-01-23T19:26:22Z")
**Octavia E Butler** writes books that I can read again and again (except for _Kindred_, which icked me out too much), and she only got into writing with the help of established white sf authors like Harlan Ellison. I’m whitey-white-white, but the themes running through her books - isolation, family, and loneliness, are universal.