If you’re a book lover, you’ve probably heard this before: one of the best ways of understanding the struggles of people who don’t share your lived experiences is by reading fiction, especially fiction written by someone who has lived that different experience.
A novel puts you right in someone else’s shoes, in their heads, in their lives, and forces you to see a reality you might not otherwise see.
For white readers especially, that means we should be reading books by more Black authors — now and always — so that we can better understand struggles we know exist but which we will never experience. If you’re a fantasy fan, however (particularly if you’re an older fantasy fan used to the musty, beloved paperbacks of the ’70s and ’80s), that might seem a challenging task, since the genre has been white-dominated for a long time.
Things are changing, however. There are still a lot of white authors in the genre, but over the last 10 years there have been so many new Black voices and amazing stories. Below are 20 fantasy books and series written by Black authors. This list has a lot: traditional swords and sorcery high fantasy, steampunk, alternate history, time-travel, and creeping eldritch horror. Enjoy! Dive in. All of it is so good, and there’s something for everyone.
