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Grace L. Dillon is an American academic and author. She is a professor in the Indigenous Nations Studies Program, in the School of Gender, Race, and Nations, at Portland State University.^[1] ^[2] She received her PhD in literary studies with an emphasis in sixteenth-century literature, and her recent research regards science fiction studies.^[3]

Similar to the concept of Afrofuturism, Dillon is best known for coining the term Indigenous Futurism, which is a movement consisting of art, literature and other forms of media which express Indigenous perspectives of the past, present and future in the context of science fiction and related sub-genres. Although Grace Dillon first coined the term “Indigenous Futurisms" in 2003, the first publication of its kind with a focus on Indigenous Futurisms, Walking the Clouds, was not published until 2012.^[4]

Academic Work

Dillon is the editor of Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction, which is the first anthology of Indigenous science fiction short stories, published by the University of Arizona Press in 2012.^[5]^[6]^[7] She organized the collection with the following sub-genres: Native Slipstream, Contact, Indigenous Science and Sustainability, Native Apocalypse, and Returning to Ourselves.^[6] The anthology includes works from Gerald Vizenor, Leslie Marmon Silko, Sherman Alexie, William Sanders and Stephen Graham Jones.^[6] The anthology brings together multiple stories from authors who are Native American, First Nations, Aboriginal Australian, and New Zealand Maori.^[6]

Previously, Dillon has edited Hive of Dreams: Contemporary Science Fiction from the Pacific Northwest, which was published in 2003 by Oregon State University Press.^[8]^[9] This is an anthology of science fiction from writers living in the Pacific Northwest, and features works from authors such as Greg Bear, Octavia Butler, and Molly Gloss.^[8] She also coedited The Routledge Handbook of CoFuturisms with Taryne Jade Taylor, Isiah Lavender III, and Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay.^[10] This book was published in 2023 by Routledge.^[10] The book dives into different forms of futurisms, such as Latinx Futurisms, Afrofuturisms, and Indigenous Futurisms.^[10]

Selected works

Hive of Dreams: Contemporary Science Fiction from the Pacific Northwest. Oregon State University Press. 2003.^[9]
Indigenous Scientific Literacies in Nalo Hopkinson's Ceremonial Worlds. GL Dillon. Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. 2007.^[11]
Walking The Clouds: An Anthology Of Indigenous Science Fiction. University of Arizona Press. 2012.^[7]
The Routledge Handbook of CoFuturisms. Routledge. 2023.^[10]