by
Portia
Although African-American fantasy writer N.K. (Nora) Jemisin has been flying under the radar with her trilogies, her work has been deemed phenomenal and should not go unnoticed any longer. She is the author of the most recently talked about trilogy, Broken Earth, and has just released the final book, “The Stone Sky”. The trilogy tells a story of slavery, revolution, destruction and redemption.
According to an article written for The New York Times, Jemisin’s work appears to mirror today’s cultural and political disputes. Somehow, she is able to touch on the issues surrounding identity and representation and infuse them into epic fantasy. Now that you are up to speed on who N.K. Jemisin is, here are 6 more facts you need to know about the woman who is changing the face of the epic fantasy genre.
As of late, Broken Earth may be receiving the most buzz, but Jemisin has been cranking out trilogies since 2010, beginning with the Inheretance trilogy. She also authored the series, Dreamblood, which was released in 2012.
Jemisin is the first black author to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel. The coveted award went to Jemisin for her novel, The Fifth Season. The Hugo Award has been described as “the best known literary award for science fiction writing.” Only 48 authors have won this award.
Understanding the lack of diversity in sci-fi novels is important, and Jemisin gets it. She’s here to change the game and finds that the typical white male fantasy has the same narrative.
“I hear all the excuses: things were just like that back then. There really were 90% men in medieval Europe and they were all white and somehow they magically got silk from East Asia and we don’t know how that happened, we’re not going to talk about that,” she said. “But that makes no sense to me. I don’t really understand why so many fantasy writers choose to focus on worlds that just seem strangely denuded. But to them I guess it doesn’t seem strange. And I guess that’s their privilege. It isn’t mine.” – The Guardian
Jemisin lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, but was born in Iowa and raised in both New York and Mobile, Alabama. Before planting her roots in Brooklyn, Jemisin resided in Massachusetts for 10 years. Her work is centered in New York and she writes a bimonthly column for the New York Times titled Otherworldly.
Jemisin was still working a day job even after releasing her first trilogy. She has a Bachelor of Science in psychology from Tulane University and a Master of Education from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. She worked as a counseling psychologist before quitting her job in 2016 to focus full-time on her writing. Even while working full-time, Jemisin was writing 1.000 words a day so that she could publish one novel per year.
This woke sci-fi writer is not here to appease the masses, but to speak her truth. She once told the Guardian that she finds other fantasy series stereotypical – a la Lord of the Rings. She said…
“As a black woman, I have no particular interest in maintaining the status quo. Why would I? The status quo is harmful, the status quo is significantly racist and sexist and a whole bunch of other things that I think need to change. With epic fantasy there is a tendency for it to be quintessentially conservative, in that its job is to restore what is perceived to be out of whack.” – The Guardian
I don’t know about you guys, but I now have the itch to check out a few of N.K. Jemisin’s books. Usually, I don’t get into science fiction, but that’s probably because I could never truly relate to any of the authors or anything in their books. Like most, I would enjoy when the books were turned into movies. It’s always easier to sit and watch a 2 hour movie, than it is to read a 2,000 page book. However, Jemisin’s trilogies have me intrigued and I’m looking forward to digging into Broken Earth.
Do you read sci-fi? Give a shout out to your favorite black science fiction writers below!
