Australian -Tanzanian author Eugen Bacon has earned two nominations at the 2025 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards, cementing her reputation as one of the most distinctive voices in speculative fiction coming out of the African diaspora today.

Bacon’s novel The Nga’phandileh Whisperer, published by Stars and Sabers, is a finalist in both the Fantasy and Multicultural Fiction categories, while her science fiction novel Novic, published by Meerkat Press, picks up a separate nomination in the Science Fiction category. The double showing, three nominations across two books makes her the most recognised African writers on this year’s finalists list.

The Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards celebrate the best of independent publishing across dozens of fiction, nonfiction, and children’s categories. For Bacon, the nominations add to a growing body of international recognition for a writer who has built a quietly formidable presence in indie speculative publishing, carving out a space where African sensibility and genre fiction meet.

The Foreword INDIES are among the most closely watched awards in independent publishing, serving since 1998 as a trusted benchmark for librarians, booksellers, and publishers navigating the vast landscape of books published outside the traditional Big Five. To earn a nomination is to be placed in front of exactly the gatekeepers and tastemakers who shape what gets read, stocked, and taught, making Bacon’s double entry not just a personal milestone but a meaningful moment for African speculative fiction. At a time when the genre is increasingly being recognised as a serious literary space, her presence on the list signals that African writers working in fantasy and science fiction are no longer at the margins of these conversations.

Winners will be announced later this year.