Summary

In the Introduction, Jemisin writes about her mission and evolution as a science fiction and fantasy writer. She writes about being a black woman drawn to science fiction and fantasy in 2002 and feeling like she had little chance of getting her work published. At the time, the speculative genre was extremely limited in range of voice. It became clear to Jemisin that while science fiction claimed to be the fiction of the future, it mostly celebrated the voices and faces of the past. She realized she had to do something new.

Jemisin concludes the Introduction with a meditation on her evolution as a writer. Over the years she struggled with fighting her own internalized racism, as well as that pervading fiction and the business. She could not see why there were not more stories with minority protagonists. These stories were a way...