The selections have been announced The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction 2022 anthology.

This year’s volume is guest edited by two strong voices in the Black speculative fiction space, Eugen Bacon and Milton Davis. It will contain poetry, and cover works from both the 2021 and 2022 years.

The second installment of the World Fantasy Award-winning Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction anthology series, published by a collaboration of Caezik Books of Arc Manor and OD Ekpeki Presents, an imprint of Jembefola Press, will be released August 1, 2023, and can be preordered here.

This anthology series aims to draw attention to the works of Africans and people of African descent, to address visibility and other marginalizing barriers that exist for writers from Africa and the diaspora on the global stage. This year’s volume also pays special attention to black speculative poetry and the power of the word.

The editors received nearly 100 submissions, totaling over 400,000 words.

SHORT FICTION

• “Broad Dutty Water: A Sunken Story” by Nalo Hopkinson in Fantasy & SF, Nov/Dec 2021
• “How We Are” by Chikodili Emelumadu in The Horror Anthology, Titan Books, Sept 2022
• “When She Speaks” by Ugochi Agoawike in Augur Magazine, November 2021
• “A Pall of Moondust” by Nick Wood in Omenana, April 2021
• “A Soul of Small Places” by Mame Bougouma Diene and Woppa Diallo in Africa Risen, Tor.com, November 2022
• “A Sunken Memory” by Donovan Hall in Cyberfunk! Anthology, February 2021
• “Kaleidoscope” by Milton J. Davis in Muscadine Wine, MV Media, Aug 2022
• “An Arc of Electric Skin” by Wole Talabi in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, September 2021
• “Barefoot and Midnight” by Sheree Renée Thomas in Apex Mag, March 2021
• “Deep in the Gardener’s Barrow” by Tobi Ogundiran in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, November 2021
• “Destiny Delayed” by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, May/June 2022
• “District to Cervix: The Time Before We Were Born” by Tlotlo Tsamaase in Prisms anthology, PS Publishing, March 2021
• “It Calls to You” by Jamal Hodge in Hybrid: Misfits, Monsters, And other Phenomena, June 2022
• “Like Stars Daring To Shine” by Somto Ihezue in Fireside Magazine, issue 103, July 2022
• “Make a Memory with Me” by Xan van Rooyen in Galaxy’s Edge, September 2022
• “March Magic” by WC Dunlap in Africa Risen, Tor.com, November 2022
• “Memories of the Old Sun” by Eugen Bacon in Chasing Whispers, Raw Dog Screaming Press, September 2022
• “Old Solomon’s Eyes” by Cheryl Ntumy in FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, Issue #24, October 2022
• “Peeling Time (Deluxe Edition)” by Tlotlo Tsamaase in Africa Risen, Tor.com, November 2022
• “The Coward of Umustead” by Diwe Anyadu in Omenana Magazine, Jul 2022
• “The Mercy of the Sandsea” by Tendai Huchu in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, July/Aug 2022
• “The Travelling Man” by Radha Opubor in Squinti Publishing, 2021
• “Them Doghead Boys” by Alex Jennings in Current Affairs Magazine, Jan/Feb 2021
• “If the Martians Have Magic” by P. Djèlí Clark in Uncanny Magazine, September/October 2021

POEMS

• “Child Price” by Akua Lezli Hope
• “Loving Venus” by Jamal Hodge
• “The Revenge of Henrietta Lacks” by Cecilia Caballero
• “and this is how it begins” by Gerald Coleman
• “Becoming” by Miguel O’Mitchell
• “Fracking-lution” by Linda D. Addison
• “Nyankopoxyican Breath of Fresh Air” by Andrew Geoffrey Kwabena Moss
• “Pigeon Police” by Bryant O’Hara
• “Street Names” by Ndaba Sibanda
• “Tons of Liquid Oxygen Buckle Too Late Under Strain” by Eugen Bacon
• “that poor woman” by Gerald Coleman
• “That Time Your Best Friend Called You Sissy as a Plate of Àmàlà and Gbẹ̀gìrì Cooked by Your Orí” by Ishola Abdulwasiu Ayodele
• “The Drone’s Retort” by Bryant O’Hara
• “The Un-Awakened (Octavia E. Butler 1947-2006)” by Linda D. Addison
• “Igbo Landing” by Akua Lezli Hope