
Though almost absent in the early years of fantasy writing, the number of Black authors—and the recognition of their work—is growing year by year.
It’s impossible to talk about fantasy written by Black authors as a cohesive genre because, like writers of other skin tones, Black authors come from all over the world and write about a wildly diverse array of subjects in their own unique ways and voices.
Despite that, I’m including this list because most other lists of fantasy books tend to be heavy on white folk, and trumpeting the achievements of Black authors should help balance that out a little bit.
Note: I’m using “Black” instead of “African-American” because a number of these authors are not American.