Forged in FIYAH is an exciting new anthology shaped by Davaun Sanders (he/him) that commemorates ten years of FIYAH magazine. Since 2016, FIYAH has been publishing speculative fiction by and about black people of the Africa diaspora. Now issuing quarterly, the literary magazine includes stories and poems that can be accessed either by EPUB or PDF.
Sanders is the current executive editor of FIYAH. He published Breathe FIYAH, an online flash fiction anthology, in collaboration with TOR and Brent Lambert in the past.
Forged in FIYAH will be out in both paperback and hardcover on September 29, 2026 from Tordotcom aka Macmillan.
I read the audiobook edition so thank you to Macmillan for the review copy via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Works included in Forged by FIYAH run across the spectrum of speculative fiction and there will be something for various types of interest in here…moving fantasy, unique sci-fi, passionate romance, and nail-biting horror.
There were many names that stood out to me when I first saw news of Forged in FIYAH. I’ve read M.H. Ayinde’s brilliant Invoker Trilogy series (1&2), loved L.D. Lewis’ Year of the Mer that came out this year, and devoured Eden Royce’s Psychopomp & Circumstance. Veronica Henry and C.L. Clark’s works are in my priority TBR. But my favorite thing about anthologies and collections is perhaps finding new-to-me authors to binge (if they have other works out) or new voices to watch for additional work in the future.
Anthologies are hard to rate because of the variety of work but Forged in FIYAH is five stars for me. I loved many of the stories, not all, but this comes down to personal interest. All of the work in this anthology is excellent, essential. It’s sharp, holding hope and horror, joy and pain, together.
Narrators include: A’rese Emokpae (Narrator); Ariel Blake (Narrator); Dion Graham (Narrator). The narration and audiobook production was fantastic.
Standouts for me were: The Clothmaker of Kehin by M.H. Ayinde, On the Origin of Species by Tobi Ogundiran, All That Remains by Eden Royce, Worry Dolls by Yvette Lisa Ndlovu, Talented Tenth by Emmalia Harrington
Full list of works include:
Crown Hill Chronic(les) by Maurice Broaddus
The Clothmaker of Kehin by M.H. Ayinde
Rescue Drone D-10.191 by Tonja Johnson
Flight by C.L. Clark
Boundless by Suyi Davies Okungbowa
For Those Who Hunger by WC Dunlap
Redemption Is the Color of Dried Blood by Veronica Henry
Petite Ville by Sheree Renée Thomas
The Nth Verse by Tonya R. Moore
We Got Options by Brent Lambert
On the Origin of Species by Tobi Ogundiran
Tophats and Parasols by Tade Thompson
The Zoo by Nelson Rolon
All That Remains by Eden Royce
The Possibility by Eboni Dunbar-Scott
Worry Dolls by Yvette Lisa Ndlovu
Talented Tenth by Emmalia Harrington
The Fae Island Incident by L.D. Lewis
Some of the content is heavier than others and as always, I would recommend checking trigger warnings before heading into this.
The audiobook is available on LibroFM at this link here!
Order the physical edition from Sistah Scifi at the link here (hardcover only) or via Bookshop.org (hardcover & paperback):
