User:Pastelpencilcase/sandbox

My name is PastelPencilCase and I'm super into SF/F, black history, and wellness studies. :) -

To do for Black Science Fiction:

Bulk up Pauline Hopkins

Black science fiction has also deeply influenced African American and African studies. For example, Octavia Butler's concept of visionary fiction has evolved into a potential teaching strategy designed to introduce medical students to the idea of bodily sovereignty.

1950-present

Writers such as Samuel R. Delany, Octavia E. Butler, Nalo Hopkinson, Minister Faust, Nnedi Okorafor, N. K. Jemisin, Tananarive Due, Andrea Hairston, Geoffrey Thorne, Nisi Shawl, and Carl Hancock Rux are among the writers who continue to work in black science fiction and speculative fiction. Also notable are Linda Addison and Jewelle Gomez for their work in horror. Gomez' The Gilda Stories, described as "an instant lesbian classic," received Lambda Literary Awards in the categories of fiction and science fiction, and explores two hundred years of American history through the eyes of Gilda, a black lesbian vampire and former slave. This reflects how black science fiction as a genre still engages in conversation with larger black intellectual movements. In "Imagine a Lesbian, A Black Lesbian," Gomez argues for an approach to black feminist criticism and literary analysis that incorporates both speculative fiction and black lesbians.

Samuel R. Delany is a noted science fiction writer, literary critic, and memoirist whose science fiction explores and experiments with mythology, race, memory, sexuality, perception and gender. In 2013, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America named Delany its 30th SFWA Grand Master.

Delany addressed the challenges facing African Americans in the science fiction community in an essay titled "Racism and Science Fiction."

Since I began to publish in 1962, I have often been asked, by people of all colors, what my experience of racial prejudice in the science fiction field has been. Has it been nonexistent? By no means: It was definitely there. A child of the political protests of the ’50s and ’60s, I’ve frequently said to people who asked that question: As long as there are only one, two, or a handful of us, however, I presume in a field such as science fiction, where many of its writers come out of the liberal-Jewish tradition, prejudice will most likely remain a slight force—until, say, black writers start to number thirteen, fifteen, twenty percent of the total. At that point, where the competition might be perceived as having some economic heft, chances are we will have as much racism and prejudice here as in any other field.

We are still a long way away from such statistics. But we are certainly moving closer.[5]

Emphasizing Delany's point, Jewelle Gomez describes, how in 1993, the only authors of color writing speculative fiction achieving any sort of commercial success were Octavia Butler and Samuel R. Delany himself. The community that built up amongst this network of writers was supportive. In a 2016 interview, Gomez describes the first black speculative fiction conference held at Clark Atlanta University, as well as the growth of the genre. "I was part of the first conference on black speculative fiction along with Octavia Butler, Samuel Delany, Tananarive Due, and Steven Barnes at Clark Atlanta University. These writers were supportive of each other.... At the CAU conference, it felt like all of us black science fiction writers were together in one room, but I couldn’t name all of the African-American writers creating speculative fiction now—there are just so many people writing."

Octavia E. Butler was an extremely influential science fiction writer and instructor. In 1995, she became the first sci-fi writer to win the MacArthur Fellowship, nicknamed the "Genius Grant." In 2007, the Carl Brandon Society established the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship which provides support to a student of color attending Clarion Writers' Workshop or Clarion West Writers Workshop. According to the Carl Brandon Society's website, "It furthers Octavia’s legacy by providing the same experience/opportunity that Octavia had to future generations of new writers of color."

Nalo Hopkinson is a renowned science fiction and fantasy writer, professor, and editor whose short stories explore class, race, and sexuality using themes from Afro-Caribbean culture, Caribbean Folklore, and feminism. Skin Folk, a collection of short stories which won the 2002 World Fantasy Award for Best Story Collection, is known for its influence from Caribbean history and language, with its tradition of written storytelling.

The Carl Brandon Society is a group originating in the science fiction community dedicated to addressing the representation of people of color in the fantastical genres such as science fiction, fantasy, and horror. The Society recognizes works by authors of color and featuring characters of color through awards, provides reading lists for educators and librarians, including one for Black History Month and has a wiki specifically for collecting information about people of color working in these genres.[citation needed] --