Charles R. Saunders

Charles Robert Saunders (July 12, 1946 May 2020) was an American-born, Black Canadian author and journalist, a pioneer of the "sword and soul" literary genre with his Imaro novels. Saunders who was born in Pennsylvania, moved to Canada to avoid the draft. He lived initially in Ontario before moving to Nova Scotia where he worked as a civil servant and teacher. In 1989, he started writing a column on Black issues for the Halifax Daily News.

During his long career, he wrote novels, non-fiction, screenplays and radio plays. Notably, he created a fictional continent Nyumbani, where the stories of Imaro, his sword and sorcery series, take place. in Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, a small town outside Pittsburgh. (The mutated Siamese that he recalled in an interview with Amy Harlib was most likely Lura, the giant Siamese cat and companion to the hero Fors in Norton's 1952 novel Star Man's Son [later reprinted as Daybreak 2250 A.D. and Star Man's Son – 2250 A.D.].)

Inspired by Africa, he created the fictional continent Nyumbani (which means "home" in Swahili), where the stories of Imaro, his sword and sorcery series, take place. In 1974, Saunders wrote a series of short stories for Gene Day's science fiction fanzine Dark Fantasy. The issue of Dark Fantasy with the first Imaro story found its way to Lin Carter, who included it in his first Year's Best Fantasy Stories collection, published by DAW Books in 1975. The publication brought Saunders' work to the attention of Daw publisher Donald A. Wollheim, who eventually suggested that Saunders turn his Imaro stories into a novel. Six of the novellas that were originally published by Gene Day in Dark Fantasy ("Mawanzo", "Turkhana Knives", "The Place of Stones", "Slaves of the Giant Kings", "Horror in the Black Hills", and "The City of Madness") would later be used in his first novel, Imaro, which was published by Daw in 1981.

However, a lawsuit by the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate over a poorly-chosen cover quote, The Epic Novel of a Black Tarzan, caused a one-month delay in shipping, as the books had to be reprinted, which led to poor sales. Saunders wrote and sold two more books in the series: The Quest for Cush (1984) and The Trail of Bohu (1985). and Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress, two anthologies designed to increase the number and recognition of female heroes in sword and sorcery fiction. "Agbewe's Sword" was adapted by Saunders himself in the screenplay of the film Amazons (1986). In 2009 he released The Trail of Bohu, the third title in the now ongoing Imaro series, through the Sword & Soul Media storefront. In 2009 he released The Naama War the fourth and latest Imaro novel through Lulu. In 2012, he released Dossouye: The Dancers of Mulukau, the second novel of Dossouye.

In 2017, Saunders released "Nyumbani Tales", a collection of Nyumbani stories that had not yet been republished, among them "Katisa," about Imaro's mother.

He was posthumously inducted into the CSSFA Hall of Fame in 2025.