One of the Earliest Science Fiction Utopias Was a Protest Against Patriarchy - Electric Literature

Over a century ago, Bengali Muslim writer Rokeya Hossain wrote a short story about a world run by women, fueled by solar power

Illustrating the Future Imaginary – Initiative for Indigenous Futures

Indigenous Sci-Fi and Fantasy Authors You Should Be Checking For

From Comic Years written by Emily O'Donnell This past week as Columbus Day has been rebranded and restored by many communities as Indigenous People's Day — it's time to reflect on a list of indigenous sci-fi and fantasy authors to look for. Take a look at some of the prominent Native

The Islamic Roots Of Science Fiction

You probably already knew that Islam was having a scientific golden age during Europe's middle ages, and making tons of scientific and medical discoveries. (Which is why we use words like "algebra.") But you might not know that some of the earliest proto-science fiction came from the Islamic world.

The Ruins of the Future: Speculative Fiction in Arabic

“Science fiction is both a mode of engagement and act of resistance by those who are continually cast as alien in their homeland.”

Think sci-fi doesn’t belong in the Muslim world? Think again | Aeon Ideas

Sci-fi does not belong to the West: from ‘One Thousand and One Nights’, the Muslim world has spun its own speculative tales

Feminist Visions of Science and Utopia in Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain’s ‘Sultana’s Dream’ — Lady Science

A look into the feminist utopia and science of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain in 'Sultana's Dream.'

Imagine a World Without Prisons: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Superheroes, and Prison Abolition | Revolution by the Book

Walidah Imarisha is the co-editor (along with adrienne maree brown) of Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements, a book we're publishing in April in collaboration with the Institute for Anarchist Studies. The project is a fascinating and exciting one, and we're looking forward to holding the final product in our hands (as are

Alternate History: A Muslim Al-Hajj Vladimir Lenin – Islam and Science Fiction

Exploring Black Feminist Futurism and Womanism with Suzi Analogue

Stories from all angles

How One 1920s Feminist Imagined Our Futuristic High-Tech World

Josephine Daskam Bacon was an author known for her adventure serials that featured female protagonists. But in 1929, she took a break from her regular fiction writing and slipped on her futurist goggles for an article in Century magazine titled "In Nineteen Seventy-Nine." Bacon imagined just how much progress women…

Reading Feminist Futurism in the Age of the “Female” Virtual Assistant

I often think about this joke from Twitter: Women are just better—that’s why our robots are women. Siri, Alexa. All you guys have is a shitbag named Craig with a creepy list. It didn’t make me laug…

Sultana's Dream And Its Conception Of A Feminist Utopia

Rokeya Sakhawat Begum's work Sultana's Dream is a feminist attempt at imagining a feminist utopia, named Ladyland.

Glimpse: Utopian Fiction Could Help Us Unlock the Bright Future We Never Imagined

It's time for science fiction to stop skewing so negative.

Are we living in a Blade Runner world?

The 1982 sci-fi film imagined a dystopian metropolis in November 2019. But, now we've caught up, to what extent did it really predict our present reality, asks David Barnett.

N. K. Jemisin’s Dream Worlds

The sci-fi writer’s inventive, intricate novels have defied convention and sold millions of copies, Raffi Khatchadourian writes.

This Science Fiction Novelist Created a Feminist Language from Scratch

Can a language be designed specifically to express the thoughts and feelings of women? In 1984, the linguist Suzette Haden Elgin wrote a science fiction novel to test this question. The result was …

In Our Dystopian Times, Why Not Strive for Utopia?

Science fiction, especially Blade Runner, has spawned so many dystopias that dystopia itself has become banal. We need a new utopianism that embraces the city.

Fantasy And Sci-fi Are Leading The Way In More Racially-Diverse Casting

In a world where there’s an elf doing magic at the next table, who’s going to care about your skin colour?

We should all be reading more Ursula Le Guin

Her novels imagine other worlds, but her theory of fiction can help us better live in this one.

There's a massive free catalogue of Indigenous films online — here are 5 picks to get you started | CBC Arts

Indigenous filmmakers and curators share their must-see recommendations from the National Film Board's catalogue of hundreds of films.

Imagining an Indigenous science-fiction festival for the stay-home era

Like all literature, good sci-fi explores the human condition, just using different tools. We Indigenous people know a few things about the human condition

Survival Is Indigenous

We talk to renowned local artist and activist Cannupa Hanska Luger about his latest work, capitalism and the future.

From growing medicine to space rockets: What is Indigenous futurism? | CBC Radio

Grace Dillon coined the term, Indigenous futurism, paying homage to Afrofuturism, which weaves in traditional knowledge and culture with futuristic ideas and settings.

“What’s A Story Like You Doing In A Place Like This?”: Cyberspace, New Media and Indigenous Speculative Fiction

For many uninformed readers Indigenous Science Fiction (sf) is an oxymoron. But Indigenous authors, programmers and artists have been imaging futures in speculative fiction and the digital for deca…

Sci-Hub | Indigenous science (fiction) for the Anthropocene: Ancestral dystopias and fantasies of climate change crises. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 1(1-2), 224–242 | 10.1177/2514848618777621

Utopias and Dystopias from the Muslim World – Islam and Science Fiction

When One People’s Sci-Fi Is Another People’s Past

Colonization and marginalization are commonly used as plot points, but for Native Americans these are not fantastical, imagined scenarios. We live them.

Sci-Fi Scenes Painted As 16th Century Ottoman Miniatures | The Mary Sue

In what amounts to be the coolest thesis project ever, Istanbul artist Murat Palta depicted scenes from popular Western  films using classic motifs from 16th century Ottoman miniatures, including a lot of moments from our  favorite science fiction classics. Hit the jump to marvel at his art/mourn the mediocrity of your thesis in comparison!

If You Really Want to Unlearn Racism, Read Black Sci-Fi Authors | The Mary Sue

I needed some hope. I shared this with my sociology professor, and he went to his bookshelf and took down The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Leguin. After that, you could say that a love affair bloomed, and when I finally sat down with some science fiction written by black women, my life was changed forever.

‘The Dispossessed’ By Ursula K. Le Guin: An Embodiment of Postmodern Anarchism ?

“You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.” ― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed Ursula K. Le Guin has…