“Writing isn’t about doing what everyone else tells you to do. Writing is about doing what your creative voice wants you to do.”

I begin this review with those two sentences from Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s The Write Attitude. Rusch writes about what a writer’s mindset and attitude should aspire to, and I thought it was appropriate in terms of Charles R. Saunders did in his largely unknown and overlooked literary career.

Charles R. Saunders came onto my radar again last week when the Imaginary Worlds podcast host was discussing To Leave A Warrior Behind with biographer Jon Tattrie. Jon Tattrie, a colleague of Saunders at the Halifax Daily News, was astonished to learn about this gentle giant’s literary work that began in the 70s with Imaro, a heroic fantasy character, dedicated to offset the images of Africa presented by the Tarzan and Conan novels of that time. Saunders remarked he wanted to write a character that could kick Tarzan’s backside. However, after reading this excellent biography, Imaro was so much more than an African-inspired character to act as a counterbalance to Tarzan and Conan.

It was a shock for Tattrie to discover Saunders had died by himself in May 2020, and for the news of his death to only become public in August of that year. What happened to his body? Tattrie learned about the trailblazer’s life from that question, and reading these pages fostered a sense of kinship in me too. The author described Charles R. Saunders’ journey from being an American by birth to becoming a Canadian by choice. My reading about Saunders’s departure from Pennsylvania for Canada in the late 1960s to escape the Vietnam War brought to mind Ishmael Reed’s satirical novel on slavery, Flight to Canada.

Saunders lived a full life despite having setbacks in his fiction writing career, and Tattrie describes the disappointment when the publisher, DAW Books, of the original first three Imaro books, dropped the series because of low sales. Unfortunately, they marketed Imaro as the “Black Tarzan,” and DAW Books didn’t really know how to promote this heroic fantasy series during the early 1980s. Charles turned to non-fiction and published books about the burgeoning Afro-Canadian community in Nova Scotia. I did not know about this community and its history. It was one of the most eye-opening revelations in the biography.

Tattrie showed how Saunders could never shake Imaro from his imagination as he tried to make a living as a newspaper editor and journalist. Imaro along with the fictional world of Nyumbani had more stories to be told from Saunders’ pen. A new publisher, Night Shade Books, came calling in the mid 2000s and it seemed Imaro was going to have a renaissance that was so rightly deserved. Disappointment came again to Saunders as Night Shade Books only published the first two Imaro books in the series and blamed poor sales for its cancellation. It seemed like Imaro and the world of Nyumbani would be forgotten forever.

It’s crucial for representation to be considered, and the concluding sections of the biography highlight how certain writers of this generation encountered the Imaro series and are dedicated to ensuring these stories remain accessible to all fantasy readers. I will admit this section of the book was the most touching. And this quote from writer Andre Fenton hits home:

“For Black writers, we usually get put into boxes and are told what we should, and shouldn’t, write about. There’s an expectation to put our traumas on plates, to feed the hunger of those who could never walk a block in our shoes. 

But Charles aimed further than the blocks, He was a trailblazer who aimed to move mountains, found truth among the stars, translated it to page, and illuminated bookshelves, breaking free from the four walls by simply lifting the ceiling. Charles Saunders showed us that Black writers are allowed to dream and tell stories that they don’t want us to.”

I wholeheartedly agree with everything Fenton wrote. Here’s where this review gets personal. Charles R. Saunders was not one of my direct influences as a writer. I will admit the sword and soul heroic fantasy stories are not where my writing falls within imaginative fiction. I’m more of a contemporary imaginative writer with stories in a secondary urban world, and my biggest influence is Charles de Lint. de Lint is one of early fathers of urban fantasy and was one of Charles R. Saunders best friends, and the two wrote letters to each other of the course of their friendship. Another revelation that I learned from this biography. It became clear to me that Saunders had been a much more direct influence than I had previously recognized.

Saunders has provided a blueprint for those of us yearning for our imaginations to soar, allowing us to craft the narratives we desire. To showcase our complexity as people, where imagination and reality blend and move together, crafting art that encourages others to do the same.

Thank you, Jon Tattrie, for writing To Leave A Warrior Behind and honoring your friend and colleague’s life as he so richly deserves. My hope for this book is the world finally catches up to this trailblazer as they have with Octavia Butler. Thank you, Charles R. Saunders, for sharing your stories and for boldly venturing down a path that was essential to explore.