Stafford L. Battle

Stafford Levon Battle has been called one of the original “Black Geeks” and Black pioneers of the internet, utilizing online networks even before the dawn of the World Wide Web. During the internet’s infancy, he wrote “Tears of the Princess” — a fiction serial for The Source (later acquired by AOL) — and co-founded the “City of New Elam,” one of the very first Black websites.

He also co-authored The African American Resource Guide to the Internet and Online Services with Dr. Rey O. Harris. As one of the first internet guidebooks written by and for African Americans, it was quickly acquired and republished by McGraw-Hill, launching Stafford on a nationwide television and radio promotional tour.

Today, Stafford is a writer, blogger, and instructional designer living in a quiet suburb just outside Washington, D.C. A proud Afrofuturist, his fiction spans Afrofuturism, Afro-horror, sword and soul, and the wild, weird West. His stories weave together rich history and bold speculation about the future of humankind, featuring African demons, Nubian warrior queens and kings, and Black people exploring outer space.

With a career dedicated to entertaining, educating, and enlightening audiences, Stafford’s diverse background includes work as a magazine editor, freelance writer, webmaster, and adjunct professor at Howard University and Prince George’s Community College.

Battle currently has several new projects in development that combine speculative fiction and politics.