Now more than ever, understanding the past helps us understand our present, and at least two African American female science fiction/fantasy writers are representing slavery in their works in honest and accessible ways. N.K. Jemisin’s The Broken Earth series (The Fifth Season (2015), The Obelisk Gate (2016), and The Stone Sky (2017)) and Tomi Adeyemi’s the Legacy of Orisha (Children of Blood and Bone (2018) and Children of Virtue and Vengeance (forthcoming)) are those works. Perhaps because of the science fiction/fantasy settings of these books, readers can be more receptive to the horrors of slavery as recounted in these novels without feelings the guilt, responsibility, judgment, scorn, anger, and/or bitterness that somehow come with discussions of the legacy of slavery in current society.
About the presenterKathleen Murphey
Kathleen Murphey is an Associate Professor in Community College of Philadelphia’s English Department. She presents regularly at MAPACA conferences. In addition to academic writing, Dr. Murphey has been doing some creative writing. Some of work has been published through The Voices Project (http://www.thevoicesproject.org/) and Writing in a Woman’s Voice (http://writinginawomansvoice.blogspo...). More information about her work can be found at www.kathleenmurphey.com.