The Carl Brandon Society is an organization originating within the science fiction community. Their mission "is to increase racial and ethnic diversity in the production of and audience for speculative fiction". Their vision is "a world in which speculative fiction, about complex and diverse cultures from writers of all backgrounds, is used to understand the present and model possible futures; and where people of color are full citizens in the community of imagination and progress". This also alludes to the James Tiptree, Jr. Award, named after the fictional male persona used by the writer long known as James Tiptree Jr.
The Society maintains annuals lists of fantastical works published by writers of color.
In 2023 the society was awarded a Special Locus Award for "Developing Diversity In Genre Communities".
CBS Parallax and Kindred Awards
Inaugurated in 2005, the Carl Brandon Parallax Award is a juried award given to works of speculative fiction created by a self-identified person of color. The 2005 Parallax, the first to be awarded, went to Walter Mosley for his young adult novel 47. Its goal is to provide an annual scholarship to enable writers of color to attend one of the Clarion writing workshops where Butler got her start. The first scholarship was awarded in 2007.