The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle (2016): A young Black street musician crosses a sorceress in Jazz-age New York, setting off a chain of events that opens him to a realm of Cthulhu-inspired mystery and power.

The Beetle by Richard Marsh (1897): A horror-mystery told by four points of view, in which a polymorphous ancient Egyptian entity attempts to seek revenge against a passionate British Member of Parliament.

Beloved by Toni Morrison (1987): A Pulitzer Prize–winning novel about an escaped slave, haunted by guilt and the revenant of her infant child, whom she had killed years before rather than have the child live enslaved.

Claimed by Francis Stevens (1920): One of speculative fiction’s first female authors pens this novel about a recovered mysterious artifact and the haunting dreams and oceanic apparitions it brings to whomever should possess it.

The Concubine by Elechi Amadi (1966): In a Nigerian village, yet-untouched by European notions, a beautiful woman finds herself mysteriously cursed, so that any who love her suddenly die.

Dark Dreams: A Collection of Horror and Suspense by Black Writers (an anthology) edited by Brandon Massey (2004): A compilation of original short stories filled with themes of supernatural entities, heritage, race relations, and vibrant life experiences (set to dark occurrences).

The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing-World by Margaret Cavendish (1666): A forerunner to the genre of science fiction, in which a young woman enters a utopian kingdom set at the North Pole, where she becomes empress of talking animals and leads them to invade her former homeland.

Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany (1974): The Kid (both protagonist and unreliable narrator) travels through a strange city that is beset by unexplainable and mind-bending catastrophes, while The Kid’s own mind bends from various mental illnesses.

Efuru by Flora Nwapa (1966): A rich exploration of the life and growth of a young woman in a Nigerian village who finds meaning in life through her tribe’s goddess of the lake.

Everfair by Nisi Shawl (2016): A Neo-Victorian alternate history novel, told from multiple voices, in which a group of socialists and missionaries found a new nation—Everfair—as a safe haven for those fleeing slavery and Belgian atrocities in the Congo.

The Famished Road by Ben Okri (1991): The first novel of a trilogy, following a spirit child (abiku) who can travel to the spirit world while living in a Nigerian city of modern reality, a metaphor to define the coexistence of spiritual and material worlds around us.

Imaro by Charles Saunders (1980): The first in a series of sword-and-sorcery fantasy novels set in a fantasy world of Africa, Imaro is a young warrior who quests for identity and sense of justice in his adventurous and far-reaching wanderings.

Kalee’s Shrine by Grant Allen and May Cotes (1866): In this fantasy of mesmerism, an Anglo-Indian infant girl is made a votary of Kalee, vengeful goddess of the Thugs; in adulthood, it transpires that Kalee’s evil influence still lurks in Olga’s unconscious mind, waiting to be reawakened.