At IntroSPECtion, we recognize that marginalised authors are under-represented in the speculative fiction genres. In this article, we compiled a list that highlights Black and African-Canadian writers that have published books in the speculative fiction genre.
C. L. Polk (they/them)
C. L. Polk wrote the Hugo-nominated series The Kingston Cycle, including the WFA winning Witchmark. The Midnight Bargain is a Canada Reads, Nebula, Locus, Ignyte, and WFA finalist. They have worked as a film extra, sold vegetables on the street, and identified exotic insect species for a vast collection of lepidoptera before settling down to write fantasy novels. Polk lives in Calgary, which is on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy, the Tsuut’ina, the Îyâxe Nakoda Nations, and the Métis Nation (Region 3). Their upcoming fantastical noir, Even Though I Knew the End is set to release with Tordotcom Publishing in November 2022.
Even Though I Knew the End explores power and love in the supernatural underbelly of 1940’s Chicago, as magical detective Helen Brandt will stop at nothing to ensure a future with the love of her life. Set in the dead of winter in Chicago, an exiled augur who sold her soul to save her brother's life is offered one last job before serving an eternity in hell. When she turns it down, her client sweetens the pot by offering up the one payment she can't resist–the chance to have a future where she grows old with the woman she loves. To succeed, she is given three days to track down the White City Vampire, Chicago's most notorious serial killer. If she fails, only hell and heartbreak await.
Deborah Falaye (she/her)
Deborah Falaye is a Nigerian-Canadian, young adult author. She grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, where she spent her time devouring African Literature, pestering her grandma for folktales, and tricking her grandfather into watching Passions every night. When she’s not writing about fierce Black girls with bad-ass magic, she can be found obsessing over all things reality TV. Deborah currently lives in Toronto with her husband and their partner-in-crime yorkie, Major. Blood Scion is her first novel.
I am a descendant of Shango, the god of heat and fire. I am a living inferno. I am a dead girl walking.
Fifteen-year-old Sloane can incinerate an enemy at will; she is a Scion, a descendant of the ancient Orisha gods, but under the Lucis' brutal rule, her identity means her death. Her mother knew as much. Her mother disappeared, hiding the truth. Sloane, too, has hidden her abilities, but on her fifteenth birthday, she is conscripted into the Lucis army. Once taken, Sloane must not only conceal her power but overcome the bloody challenges of Lucis training.
But if she can infiltrate the Lucis, she could destroy her enemies: the people who call her kin less than human and the overlords responsible for her mother's disappearance. Sloane rises through the ranks and gains strength but, in doing so, risks something greater: losing herself entirely and becoming the very monster that she abhors.
Jael Richardson (she/her)
Jael Richardson is the author of The Stone Thrower and the founder and Executive Director for the Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD) in Brampton, Ontario. Her debut dystopian novel, Gutter Child was shortlisted for the Amazon First Novel Award, a finalist for the White Pine Award and won a Word Award. Her second picture book, Because You Are, was published in July 2022. Richardson holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph and lives in Brampton, Ontario.
Set in an imagined world in which the most vulnerable are forced to buy their freedom by working off their debt to society, Gutter Child uncovers a nation divided into the privileged Mainland and the policed Gutter. As part of a social experiment led by the Mainland government, Elimina Dubois is one of just one hundred babies taken from the Gutter and raised in the land of opportunity.
But when her Mainland mother dies, Elimina finds herself alone, a teenager forced into an unfamiliar life of servitude, unsure of who she is and where she belongs. Sent to an academy with new rules and expectations, Elimina befriends children who are making their own way through the Gutter System in whatever way they know how. But when her life takes yet another unexpected turn, Elimina will discover that what she needs more than anything may not be the freedom she longed for after all.
Gutter Child reveals one young woman’s journey through a fractured world of heartbreaking disadvantages and shocking injustices. As a modern heroine in an altered but all-too-recognizable reality, Elimina must find the strength within herself to forge her future in defiance of a system that tries to shape her destiny.
Liselle Sambury (she/her)
Liselle Sambury is the Trinidadian-Canadian author of the Governor General’s Literary Awards Finalist, Blood Like Magic. Her work spans multiple genres, from fantasy to sci-fi, horror, and more. In her free time, she shares helpful tips for upcoming writers and details of her publishing journey through a YouTube channel dedicated to demystifying the sometimes complicated business of being an author. The sequel to Blood Like Magic, Blood Like Fate, is available for purchase now!
Blood Like Magic is a rich, dark urban fantasy debut following a teen witch who is given a horrifying task: sacrificing her first love to save her family’s magic. The problem is, she’s never been in love—she’ll have to find the perfect guy before she can kill him.
After years of waiting for her Calling—a trial every witch must pass to come into their powers—the one thing Voya Thomas didn’t expect was to fail. When Voya’s ancestor gives her an unprecedented second chance to complete her Calling, she agrees—and then is horrified when her task is to kill her first love. And this time, failure means every Thomas witch will be stripped of their magic.
Voya is determined to save her family’s magic no matter the cost. The problem is, Voya has never been in love, so for her to succeed, she’ll first have to find the perfect guy—and fast. Fortunately, a genetic matchmaking program has just hit the market. Her plan is to join the program, fall in love, and complete her task before the deadline. What she doesn’t count on is being paired with the infuriating Luc—how can she fall in love with a guy who seemingly wants nothing to do with her?
With mounting pressure from her family, Voya is caught between her morality and her duty to her bloodline. If she wants to save their heritage and Luc, she’ll have to find something her ancestor wants more than blood. And in witchcraft, blood is everything.
Minister Faust (Pan-Africanist)
The critically-acclaimed author of The Alchemists of Kush and the Kindred Award-winning and Philip K. Dick runner-up Shrinking the Heroes, Minister Faust first won accolades for his debut The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad, shortlisted for the Locus Best First Novel and Philip K. Dick awards.
His short work has appeared in Cyber World, Fiery Spirits, Griots: A Sword and Soul Anthology, iO9, Canada 150: Stories of Reconciliation Connecting Us All, Engineer Magazine, The Globe & Mail, Greg Tate’s Coon Bidness, and more.
Minister Faust's Afritopianism draws from a myriad of ancient African civilisations, explores present realities, and imagines a future in which people struggle not only for justice, but for the stars.
In The Alchemists of Kush, two Sudanese "lost boys." Both fathers murdered during civil war. Both mothers were forced into exile through lands where the only law was violence. To survive, they became ruthless loners and child soldiers, before finding mystic mentors who transformed them to create their destinies. One, known to the streets as the Supreme Raptor.... The other, known to the Greeks as Horus, son of Osiris. Separated by seven thousand years, and connected by immortal truth. Both born in fire. Both baptized in blood. Both brutalized by the wicked. Both sworn to transform the world, and themselves, by the power... of Alchemy.
Nandi Taylor (she/her)
Nandi Taylor is a Canadian writer of Afro-Caribbean descent based in Toronto. Her debut novel Given garnered over one million reads on the online story sharing site Wattpad, and earned a starred review from ALA’s Booklist. Nandi graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in English literature and a diploma in journalism and has worked as a travel writer while living abroad in Japan. Her works are an expression of what she craved growing up—Black protagonists in speculative settings with themes of growth, courage, and finding
one’s place in the world.
Given follows Yenni, a princess of the Moonrise Isles and one of its fiercest warriors who always puts duty before her own desires. When her father falls gravely ill, she knows she must find the cure and sets out on an arduous journey that takes her to a magical academy in the far reaches of the Empire of Cresh. There is no room for failure, but Yenni struggles to learn the strange magic of Cresh as a cure continues to evade her. And complicating matters is Weysh, a dragon shifter who says Yenni is his Given—his one true partner ordained by destiny. As a dragon, Weysh is an ally, both in
matters of magic and friendship. As a man, he is a beautiful and infuriating distraction.
With her father’s life hanging in the balance and her feelings for Weysh deepening, Yenni
realizes her greatest challenge has just begun—save her people, while also following her
Heart.
Breakout author Nandi Taylor brings to life an Afro-Caribbean-inspired fantasy that blends
vast world building with a swoon-worthy romance in this epic debut.
Sarah Raughley (she/her)
Sarah Raughley grew up in Southern Ontario writing stories about freakish little girls with powers because she secretly wanted to be one. She is a huge fangirl of anything from manga to sci-fi fantasy TV to Japanese role-playing games and other geeky things, all of which have largely inspired her writing. Sarah has been nominated for the Aurora Award for Best YA Novel and works in the community doing writing workshops for youths and adults. On top of being a YA writer, Sarah has a PhD in English, which makes her a doctor, so it turns out she didn’t have to go to medical school after all. As an academic, Sarah has taught undergraduate courses and acted as a postdoctoral fellow. Her research concerns representations of race and gender in popular media culture, youth culture, and postcolonialism. She has written and edited articles in political, cultural, and academic publications. She continues to use her voice for good. You can find her online at SarahRaughley.com.
The Bones of Ruin tells the story of Iris, an African tightrope dancer in Victorian London who’s used to being strange. She is certainly an unusual sight for leering British audiences who are always eager for the spectacle of colonial curiosity. But Iris also has a secret that even “strange” doesn’t capture…
She cannot die.
Haunted by her unnatural power and with no memories of her past, Iris is obsessed with discovering who she is. But that mission gets more complicated when she meets the dark and alluring Adam Temple, a member of a mysterious order called the Enlightenment Committee. Adam seems to know much more about her than he lets on, and he shares with her a terrifying revelation: the world is ending, and the Committee will decide who lives…and who doesn’t.
To help them choose a leader for the upcoming apocalypse, the Committee is holding the Tournament of Freaks, a macabre competition made up of vicious fighters with fantastical abilities. Adam wants Iris to be his champion, and in return he promises her the one thing she wants most: the truth about who she really is.
If Iris wants to learn about her shadowy past, she has no choice but to fight. But the further she gets in the grisly tournament, the more she begins to remember—and the more she wonders if the truth is something best left forgotten.
Sifton Tracey Anipare (she/her)
Sifton Tracey Anipare was born in Windsor, Ontario to Ghanaian parents. A writer, dancer, cinephile, gamer, and musician since childhood, she has always been fascinated by strange stories. She completed her Honours Bachelor of Science at the University of Toronto and interned at the Toronto International Film Festival, then taught English in Japan for four years before pursuing a career in education in Canada. When she is not writing, she will re-watch her favourite movies or play video games for hours on end (bubble tea in hand). Yume (夢) is her second NaNoWriMo attempt and first full-length novel.
“The World is big. The dream world is even bigger.”
Yume is about a woman named Cybelle who is teaching English in a small city in Japan when her contract comes up for renewal. Her mother is begging her to come back to Canada, but she is not sure where she belongs anymore. She faces ostracism and fear daily, but she loves her job, despite its increasing difficulties. She vows to do her best—even when her sleep, appetite, and life in general start to get weird, and conforming to the rules that once helped her becomes a struggle.
Meanwhile, yokai feast and cavort around Osaka and Kyoto as the barrier between their world and the human world thins. Zaniel spends his nights walking the dream world and serving his demon “bodyguard,” Akki. But there is a new yokai on the scene, and it has gotten on Akki’s bad side. When Cybelle gets caught up in the supernatural clash, she has to figure out what is real and, more importantly, what she really wants … before her life spirals out of control altogether.
Terese Mason Pierre (she/her)
Terese Mason Pierre is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in The Walrus, ROOM, Quill & Quire, and Fantasy Magazine, among others. Her work has been nominated for the bpNichol Chapbook Award, Best of the Net, and twice for the Ignyte Award. She is the co-Editor-in-Chief of Augur Magazine, a Canadian speculative literature journal. Terese has also co-hosted poetry reading series, organized literary events, and facilitated creative writing workshops. She is the author of chapbooks, Surface Area (Anstruther Press, 2019) and Manifest (Gap Riot Press, 2020). Terese lives and works in Toronto, Canada.
From Toronto-based poet Terese Mason Pierre comes Manifest, a gorgeous speculative/fantasy-filled journey to the outer limits of human desire. Mason Pierre’s romantic, dreamy, and ethereal language stops time: and in that held moment, we are transported to lands, beaches, and worlds that may only exist in our collective unconscious, but that move us toward a profoundly intimate understanding of what it means to be human.
We hope you enjoyed this list of authors and encourage readers to do their own research to find and support writers from marginalized communities.
For more listicles spotlighting Canadian writers in Speculative fiction, check out our “Canucks in Space” series!