Charles R. Saunders

Charles Robert Saunders (1946–2020) was a pioneering African American author and journalist credited with creating the Sword and Soul genre. Born in Pennsylvania and an alumnus of Lincoln University, he moved to Canada in 1969 to avoid the draft, eventually settling in Nova Scotia. In 1989, he began a distinguished career at the Halifax Daily News, where he wrote a weekly column on African-Nova Scotian life and four significant non-fiction books on the Black community.

In his literary career, Saunders sought to bring African culture and mythology into speculative fiction. He created the fictional continent of Nyumbani for his Imaro series, which began in the fanzine Dark Fantasy before being published by DAW Books in 1981. Though early sales were hampered by a lawsuit regarding a “Black Tarzan” cover quote, his work saw a resurgence through Sheree Renée Thomas’s Dark Matter anthologies and Night Shade Books.

Beyond Imaro, he wrote Dossouye, featuring a female warrior inspired by the Kingdom of Dahomey, and contributed to numerous anthologies including Sword and Sorceress. Saunders passed away in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, leaving a legacy as a mentor and inspiration to a new generation of speculative fiction writers.