Outstanding SF/F by People of Color 2023

In the spirit of Lightspeed Magazine's famous People of Color Destroy Science Fiction series, here are 62 stories by 57 people of color that had scores of 3 or higher from RSR's 2023 Best SF/F list. That list contains the 262 most-recommended stories out of 600+ covered, so the 62 stories by people of color make up around 24% of the best of 2023.

Some stories not reviewed by RSR are in the Best SF/F list because they were award finalists 🏆, included in year's best anthologies 📙, or recommended by other prolific reviewers 👍 (see Q&A for SF/F awards, year's best anthologies, and prolific reviewers followed).

Readers asked us to make it easy for them to find good stories written by authors with diverse racial backgrounds, and that’s what this list is meant to accomplish (author identity plays no role in our ratings). This is the seventh year we've done this list (2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2015-2016).

Outstanding SF/F by People of Color 2022

In the spirit of Lightspeed Magazine's famous People of Color Destroy Science Fiction series, here are 60 stories by 53 people of color that had scores of 3 or higher from RSR's 2022 Best SF/F list. That list contains the 255 most-recommended stories out of 600+ covered, so the 60 stories by people of color make up around 23% of the best of 2022.

Some stories not reviewed by RSR are in the Best SF/F list because they were award finalists 🏆, included in year's best anthologies 📙, or recommended by other prolific reviewers 👍 (see Q&A for SF/F awards, year's best anthologies, and prolific reviewers followed).

Readers asked us to make it easy for them to find good stories written by authors with diverse racial backgrounds, and that’s what this list is meant to accomplish (author identity plays no role in our ratings). This is the seventh year we've done this list (2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2015-2016).

Outstanding SF/F by People of Color 2021

In the spirit of Lightspeed Magazine's famous People of Color Destroy Science Fiction series, here are 42 stories by 40 people of color that had scores of 3 or higher from RSR's 2021 Best SF/F list. That list contains the 272 most-recommended stories out of 600+ covered, so the 42 stories by people of color make up around 15% of the best of 2021.

Some stories not reviewed by RSR are in the Best SF/F list because they were award finalists 🏆, included in year's best anthologies 📙, or recommended by other prolific reviewers 👍 (see Q&A for SF/F awards, year's best anthologies, and prolific reviewers followed).

Readers asked us to make it easy for them to find good stories written by authors with diverse racial backgrounds, and that’s what this list is meant to accomplish (author identity plays no role in our ratings). This is the sixth year we've done this list (2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2015-2016).

Outstanding SF/F by People of Color 2020

In the spirit of Lightspeed Magazine's famous People of Color Destroy Science Fiction series, here are 56 stories by 43 people of color that had scores of 3 or higher from RSR's 2020 Best SF/F list. That list contains the 256 most-recommended stories out of 600+ covered, so the 56 stories by people of color make up around 22% of the best of 2020.

Some stories not reviewed by RSR are in the Best SF/F list because they were award finalists 🏆, included in year's best anthologies 📙, or recommended by other prolific reviewers 👍 (see Q&A for SF/F awards, year's best anthologies, and prolific reviewers followed).

Readers asked us to make it easy for them to find good stories written by authors with diverse racial backgrounds, and that’s what this list is meant to accomplish (author identity plays no role in our ratings). This is the fifth year we've done this list (2019, 2018, 2017, 2015-2016).

Outstanding SF/F by People of Color 2019

In the spirit of Lightspeed Magazine's famous People of Color Destroy Science Fiction series, here are 67 stories by 60 people of color that had scores of 3 or higher from RSR's 2019 Best SF/F list. That list contains the 331 most-recommended stories out of 700+ covered, so the 67 stories by people of color make up around 20% of the best of 2019.

Some stories not reviewed by RSR are in the Best SF/F list because they were award finalists 🏆, included in year's best anthologies 📙, or recommended by other prolific reviewers 👍 (see Q&A for SF/F awards, year's best anthologies, and prolific reviewers followed).

Readers asked us to make it easy for them to find good stories written by authors with diverse racial backgrounds, and that’s what this list is meant to accomplish (author identity plays no role in our ratings). This is the fourth year we've done this list (2018, 2017, 2015-2016).

Outstanding SF/F by People of Color 2018

In the spirit of Lightspeed Magazine's famous People of Color Destroy Science Fiction series, here are 65 stories by 53 people of color that had scores of 2 or higher from RSR's 2018 Best SF/F list. That list contains the 342 most-recommended stories out of 785 covered, so the 65 stories by people of color make up around 19% of the best of 2018.

Some stories not reviewed by RSR are in the Best SF/F list because they were award finalists 🏆, included in year's best anthologies 📙, or recommended by other prolific reviewers 👍 (see Q&A for SF/F awards, year's best anthologies, and prolific reviewers followed).

Readers asked us to make it easy for them to find good stories written by authors with diverse racial backgrounds, and that’s what this list is meant to accomplish (author identity plays no role in our ratings). This is the third year we've done this list (2017, 2015-2016).

Outstanding SF/F by People of Color 2017

In the spirit of Lightspeed Magazine's famous People of Color Destroy Science Fiction series, here are 59 stories by 47 people of color that had scores of 2+ from RSR's 2017 Best SF/F list. That list contains the 287 most-recommended stories out of 842 covered, so the 59 stories by people of color make up around 21% of the best of 2017.

Some stories not reviewed by RSR are in the Best SF/F list because they were award finalists 🏆, included in year's best anthologies 📙, or recommended by other prolific reviewers 👍 (see Q&A for SF/F awards, year's best anthologies, and prolific reviewers followed).

Readers asked us to make it easy for them to find good stories written by authors with diverse racial backgrounds, and that’s what this list is meant to accomplish (author identity plays no role in our ratings). This is the second year we've done this list (2015-2016).

Outstanding SF/F by People of Color 2015-2016

Update 3/29/18: Removed reviewer CPayseur at his request. Also see discussion of request by Hugo finalist Camestros Felapton.

In the spirit of Lightspeed Magazine's famous People of Color Destroy Science Fiction series, here are 92 stories by people of color that had a combined score of 2+ from RSR's 2015 & 2016 Best SF/F lists. The two lists together contain the 440 most-recommended stories out of 1,481 reviewed, so the 92 stories by people of color make up around 21% of the best of 2015-2016.

Readers asked us to make it easy for them to find good stories written by authors with diverse racial backgrounds, and that’s what this list is meant to accomplish (author identity plays no role in our ratings). Note that this is for fiction from 2015 and 2016 (RSR started September 2015); and we’ll prepare a similar list for 2017 once the finalists for various awards have been announced—probably in July or August.