Dark_Matter_(prose_anthologies)
Dark Matter (prose anthologies)
Book series by Sheree Thomas
Dark Matter is an anthology series of science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories and essays produced by people of African descent. The editor of the series is Sheree Thomas. The first book in the series, Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora (2000), won the 2001 World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology. The second book in the Dark Matter series, Dark Matter: Reading the Bones (2004), won the World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology in 2005. A forthcoming third book in the series is tentatively named Dark Matter: Africa Rising. This was finally published at the end of 2022 under the title Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, from Tor Books.
In the introduction to the first book, the editor explains that the title alludes to cosmological "dark matter", an invisible yet essential part of the universe, to highlight how black people's contributions have been ignored: "They became dark matter, invisible to the naked eye; and yet their influence — their gravitational pull on the world around them — would become undeniable".
