Black Sci-Fi Short Stories

A deluxe edition of new writing and neglected perspectives.

Dystopia, apocalypse, gene-splicing, cloning and colonization are explored here by new authors and combined with writing of an older tradition (by authors such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin R. Delany, Sutton E. Griggs, Pauline Hopkins and Edward Johnson) whose first-hand experience of slavery and denial created their living dystopia.

With a foreword by Alex Award-winning novelist Temi Oh, an introduction by Dr. Sandra M. Grayson, author of Visions of the Third Millennium: Black Science Fiction Novelists Write the Future (2003), and invaluable promotion and editorial support from Tia Ross and the Black Writers Collective and more, this latest offering in the Flame Tree Gothic fantasy series focuses on an area of science fiction which has not received the attention it deserves. Many of the themes in Sci-fi reveal the world as it is to others, show us how to improve it, and give voice to the many different expressions of a future for humankind.

The Flame Tree Gothic Fantasy, Classic Stories and Epic Tales collections bring together the entire range of myth, folklore and modern short fiction. Highlighting the roots of suspense, supernatural, science fiction and mystery stories, the books in Flame Tree Collections series are beautifully presented, perfect as a gift and offer a lifetime of reading pleasure.

Table of Contents:

An Empty, Hollow Interview by James Beamon

The Comet by W.E.B. Du Bois

Élan Vital by K. Tempest Bradford

The Orb by Tara Campbell

Blake, or The Huts of America by Martin R. Delany

The Floating City of Pengimbang by Michelle F. Goddard

The New Colossuses by Harambee K. Grey-Sun

Imperium in Imperio by Sutton E. Griggs

Seven Thieves by Emmalia Harrington

Of One Blood: Or, The Hidden Self by Pauline Hopkins

Space Traitors by Walidah Imarisha

The Line of Demarcation by Patty Nicole Johnson

Light Ahead for the Negro by Edward Johnson

e-race by Russell Nichols

Giant Steps by Russell Nichols

Almost Too Good to Be True by Temi Oh

You May Run On by Megan Pindling

Suffering Inside, But Still I Soar by Sylvie Soul

The Pox Party by Lyle Stiles

The Regression Test by Wole Talabi

Key partners in the publication of BLACK SCI-FI SHORT STORIES include: 

TEMI OH graduated with a BSci in Neuroscience. Her degree provided great opportunities to write and learn about topics ranging from ‘Philosophy of the Mind’ to ‘Space Physiology’. While at KCL, Temi founded a book-club called ‘Neuroscience-fiction’, where she led discussions about science-fiction books which focus on the brain. In 2016, she received an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Edinburgh. Her first novel, DO YOU DREAM OF TERRA-TWO?, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2019 and won the American Library Association’s Alex Award. She has loved and gifted Flame Tree's beautiful books for many years and is thrilled to be part of this project.

DR. SANDRA M. GRAYSON is a tenured Full Professor in the English Department at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her numerous publications include the books Visions of the Third Millennium: Black Science Fiction Novelists Write the Future; Symbolizing the Past: Reading Sankofa, Daughters of the Dust, and Eve’s Bayou as Histories; A Literary Revolution: In the Spirit of the Harlem Renaissance; and Sparks of Resistance, Flames of Change: Black Communities and Activism.

TIA ROSS is the Founder of the Black Writers Collective (BlackWriters.org), the Founder/Managing Editor for Black Editors & Proofreaders, Editor for ColorOfChange.org and more. She is a polymath entrepreneur who is passionate about great writing, as well as forging successful businesses as an information architect and event organiser.

A publisher of nearly 30 years, Flame Tree has created an extensive range of speculative fiction collections in the Gothic Fantasy short story series -- including Time Travel, Heroic Fantasy and Dystopia Utopia Short Stories -- which feature classic and new writing from open submission calls, building significant communities of readers online and in print. Gorgeous editions, collectable and highly readable, these books bring together the entire range of myth, folklore and modern short stories in horror and suspense, crime and mystery, science fiction and fantasy.

As Flame Tree continues to grow, the publisher is committed to reaching more diverse communities of writers, and delighted to partner with the Black Writers Collective in particular to open submissions for the new Black Sci-Fi Anthology, but also for their main fiction imprint, Flame Tree Press.