Mothership Rising

Afrofuturism in the Radium Age
A mind-expanding anthology of early Black science fictionthe visionary origins of Afrofuturism.

The future is waitingcome aboard.

This collection, introduced by Hugo and Nebula Awardwinning authorNisi Shawl, remixes the past to reveal a tradition of speculative thought too long overlooked: the pioneering Black writers, playwrights, and poets whose future-facing imaginations helped lay the groundwork for artists fromSamuel R. DelanyandOctavia E. ButlertoParliament-FunkadelicandJanelle Mone.

Edited byLisa Yaszek, Mothership Rising gathers early twentieth-century visionsutopian and dystopian alikefromPauline Hopkins,W. E. B. Du Bois,Jean Toomer,Langston Hughes,Marita Bonner,George S. Schuyler, and others. Here are strange technologies, hidden histories, cosmic journeys, and revolutionary futurestransmissions from an earlier twentieth century, received now as a call to imag