What would you recommend?

[amanda]

I'm looking for books written by non-mainstream authors in fantasy and/or sci fi and or/horror. I seem to be stuck in a rut as far as authors go, so I'm looking for something different in order to start branching out a little. :)

Comments

[gool_duck]

I'd appreciate it if you clarified what you mean by 'non-mainstream'.

I have a book of short stories by Nalo Hopkinson, Skin Folk and they're on the fantasy and horror side, and they are good stories.
She's Jamaican-born and lives in Canada, and is black and queer and a woman (so not the straight-white-man of mainstream). On the other hand, she's won the John W. Campbell award for best new writer (in 1999) and Skin Folk won the World Fantasy Award, and winning awards sorta indicates being embraced by the mainstream, maybe? I don't know.

[amanda]

As someone else pointed out non-mainstream is in the eye of the beholder. It also may be affected by where you live. I have my favourite authors, and they're generally a big deal and very popular over here (I live in the UK). So I pretty much wanted people to think of authors that perhaps weren't as popular as they should be, or maybe up and coming authors on their way to being best sellers.

Personally, I've never heard of Nalo Hopkinson, but I'm certainly interested in checking her out based on your comment! Thank you. :D