This guide was first created for Black History Month 2019 when the UI Libraries collaborated with the Afro-American Cultural Center to create a themed book display, "Imagining Future Histories" featuring Black and African American Sci-Fi writers and their works. "Imagining Future Histories" is in connection to the 2019 "American Dream" Theme Semester, for which the Libraries and Afro House received a 2019 Theme Semester Grant. The grant went towards the funding of the Helen Lemme Reading Club Library housed at the Afro-American Cultural Center, as well as a speaker series at the University of Iowa, bringing in Sheree Thomas, editor of Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora. Like the "Imagining Future Histories" book display, the borrowing library and author series focus attention on the genre(s) of Black Sci-Fi & Fantasy writing and Afro-futurist Art as a way to help our campus and community dream up future histories that can inform the important work we need to do currently as future ancestors. 

In this guide you will find information on the authors and their works that are featured on display. Please note that this guide is not an exhaustive list of African American and Black writers in Sci-Fi and Speculative Fiction. If you have any questions or concerns, as well as any authors or titles you want us to include, please email us at katie-hassman@uiowa.edu or jenay-solomon@uiowa.edu.