Prominent Nigerian sci-fi writer Wole Talabi will edit a collection of short fiction by African and diaspora writers titled The Sauutiverse Anthology. The collection will be published by Android Press in November 2023.

The collection is the first ever suite of stories based on the Sauúti shared world, narrative universe founded by a collective of writers collaborating on an African world-building project. The project was launched last year by Nigerian sci-fi writer Wole Talabi and Haitian-American sci-fi writer Fabrice Guerrier in partnership with Brittle Paper.

Learn more about the imaginative world on which the stories in the collection are based:

The Sauúti shared world or universe, which we fondly call the Sauútiverse, is a fictional secondary world based on a blend of African cultural worldviews and inspirations.The name is inspired by the Swahili word for “voice”. It is a five-planet system orbiting a binary star, where everything revolves around an intricate magic and technological system based on sound, oral traditions and music. It includes science-fiction elements of artificial intelligence and space flight, with both humanoid and non-humanoid creatures. You can think of it like Wakanda from Marvel’s Black Panther by way of George RR Martin’s Wild Cards, with all the rich interplanetary world-building of Frank Herbert’s Dune. But make no mistake, the Sauútiverse is distinctly African, being flexible enough to absorb and synthesize the multitude of its varied African cultural inspirations into something new.

Android Press shared news of the collection on Twitter, remarking that this collection is the first of many other literary projects:  “This anthology is the beginning. Art, novellas, and other formats will be explored by the folks in the Sauúti collective as well.”

The authors in the Sauúti Collective include Kalejaye Akintoba, Eugen Bacon, Stephen Embleton, Adelehin Ijasan, Ikechukwu Nwaogu, Jude Umeh, Xan van Rooyen, Wole Talabi, Cheryl Ntumy, Fabrice Guerrier, and Dare Segun Falowo.

Talabi, the editor of the collection, is an award-winning writer. He has edited three anthologies: Brittle Paper’s Africanfuturism, which was nominated for the Locus Award in 2021, Lights Out: Resurrection, and These Words Expose Us. He has won multiple awards including the Caine Prize, the Locus Award, the Jim Baen Memorial Award, and the Nommo Award, and been nominated for the British Science Fiction Awards (BSFA). His debut novel Shigidi will be published this August.

Congrats to Talabi and the authors included in the collection on the upcoming anthology!