Ancestral Futures is a non-profit, speculative literary arts and education organization, fiscally sponsored through 501(c)3 partnership with The Speculative Literature Foundation.
We amplify the writing of emerging speculative storytellers who identify as Black, Indigenous, Asian, Latinx, or People of Color (BIPOC+) by co-facilitating a speculative literary mentorship in collaboration with professional-level speculative writers from the Codex Writers’ Group.
We also produce literary events (discussion panels, public readings, author interviews, book clubs), craft and critique workshops, as well as facilitate publishing opportunities.
We promote speculative literature as a path for preserving diaspora-descended cultural arts heritage and as a catalyst that fuels wonder, encourages vivid imagination, invokes magic, and promotes innovative futures thinking.
We design curricula and provide professional development training to strategically connect our community with income-generating opportunities as multi-cultural creative talent.
Ancestral Futures is a community-based offering that grew out of conversations between Audrey T. Williams and Jasmine H. Wade who met in Rochelle Spencer’s Afrosurreal Writers Workshop in Oakland.
Dedication
We dedicate this work to honor the lineages of our literary, lyrical ancestors who directly influenced us, and who paved the way for the fierce creative expression of BIPOC radical imaginations, such as Toni Cade Bambara, Octavia Butler, Lucille Clifton, Zora Neale Hurston, June Jordan, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, and Prince.
We gratefully acknowledge this work follows after the living legacies of our personal Teachers, Mentors, and Inspirations, including but not limited to: Elmaz Abinader, Linda D. Addison, Tomi Adeyeme, Steven Barnes, adrienne maree brown, Samuel Delaney, Tananarive Due, Nettrice Gaskins, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Nalo Hopkinson, Walidah Imarisha, NK Jemisin, Victor LaValle, Carmen Maria Machado, Janelle Monae, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Nnedi Okorafor, Rebecca Roanhorse, Nisi Shawl, Rochelle Spencer, Sherée Renee Thomas, the founders of FIYAH Literary Magazine, and the founders of Voodoonauts.
Program Offerings
Speculative Storytelling Mentorship for BIPOC+ Writers
Starting April 15, 2020
We are happy to announce a free, 3-month mentorship between professional speculative, science fiction, and fantasy (SFF) writers and emerging SFF writers who identify as BIPOC.
We have amazing mentors from Codex Writers’ Group whose experiences in the paid SFF literary markets range from short fiction to novellas and novels, from fantasy to hard science fiction, and they have volunteered their time to mentor writers looking to hone their skills and enter the paid markets!
This is a great opportunity for BIPOC writers to level-up their SFF skills!
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Look for updates on social media and sign up below to learn how you can get involved!
COMING SOON!
Virtual Book Club (Summer 2021)
We will be reading and discussing Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs’ experimental triptych:
Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity
M Archive: After the End of the World
Dub: Finding Ceremony
Per request from Dr. Lex: My preference is that folks order their books from Charis Books and More (that way proceeds support the oldest feminist bookstore in North America!).
Interested in learning more? Watch Dr. Lex speak on the second book, M Archive: After the End of the World.
Sign up below to join the book club discussion!
PAST EVENTS
March 2020: FOGcon10 Panel
Along with Guest of Honor, Nisi Shawl, we had the honor of curating and participating in a discussion panel of Black women speculative fiction writers.
February 2020: SF by the Bay Festival
In collaboration with the San Francisco Public Library and the Afrosurreal Writers Workshop of Oakland, we curated a showcase of thirteen Bay Area Black speculative fiction writers.
With community support from Tachyon Publications, LOCUS Magazine, Borderland Books, and Nomadic Press, we were able to promote members of our local speculative writers collective to a broad audience.
December 2019: AfroPoetic Futures Panel
In collaboration with Lonny Brooks and Reynaldo Anderson of The Black Speculative Arts Movement and The Institute for the Future, we curated a discussion panel featuring Tongo Eisen-Martin, Vernon Keeve III, and Raina J. León.
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