Today I welcome Savannah Stephens to the show to chat about Black Witches in fiction. To be clear, we are not talking about ‘black magic,’ we are discussing books that feature Black characters that are also witches. Savannah’s book, WITCH QUEEN RISING, is a genre blend of fantasy and horror that takes place in New Orleans. It has werewolves, vampires, and a witch who must reluctantly return home to assume her powers. We have some great book recommendations for you, listed below.
I recommended Tasha Harrison's Substack on the show, which you can subscribe to here.
Savannah’s recs
- This Poison Heart (This Poison Heart, #1) by Kalynn Bayron
- Death Card by Jasmine Smith
- An Arcane Inheritance by Kamilah Cole
- Witches Steeped in Gold (Witches Steeped in Gold, #1) by Ciannon Smart
- Legendborn (The Legendborn Cycle, #1) by Tracy Deonn
Agatha’s recs
- Witchful Thinking by Celestine Martin
- Under a Strawberry Moon by Tasha Harrison
- I'll Come Back for You and I’ll Conjure You by Charish Reid
- This Cursed House by Del Sandeen
- The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson
I really love this episode. A year or so ago, I switched from writing crime thrillers to sapphic witchy urban fantasy set in Arizona. As a trans woman, my crime fiction was very diverse and inclusive. I wanted my urban fantasy to be as well. At the same time, I didn't want the witchcraft aspect to be exclusively Eurocentric or misappropriative of other cultures (e.g. skinwalkers). Reading more racially diverse urban fantasy written by BIPOC authors is crucial. So this episode was a joy. Goddess help my TBR list. Thank you so much for this.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I don't know if you listen to the Imaginary Worlds podcast, but they just did a fantastic episode about Charles R. Saunders, the Black author of the Imaro "sword & soul" books back in the early 1980s. I highly recommend listening to the episode.
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