Nora Keita Jemisin (born September 19, 1972) is an American

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

and

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...

writer, better known as N. K. Jemisin. Her fiction includes a wide range of themes, notably cultural conflict and oppression. Her

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...

, '' The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms'', and the subsequent books in her '' Inheritance Trilogy'' received critical acclaim. She has won several awards for her work, including the

Locus Award The Locus Awards are an annual set of literary awards voted on by readers of the science fiction and fantasy magazine ''Locus'', a monthly magazine based in Oakland, California. The awards are presented at an annual banquet. In addition to the p ...

. The three books of her

Broken Earth series Nora Keita Jemisin (born September 19, 1972) is an American science fiction and fantasy writer, better known as N. K. Jemisin. Her fiction includes a wide range of themes, notably cultural conflict and oppression. Her debut novel, ''The Hundre ...

made her the first author to win the

Hugo Award for Best Novel The Hugo Award for Best Novel is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published in, or translated to, English during the previous calendar year. The novel award is available for works of fiction of 40,000 ...

in three consecutive years, as well as the first to win for all three novels in a trilogy. She won a fourth Hugo Award, for Best Novelette, in 2020 for ''

Emergency Skin ''Emergency Skin'' is a science-fiction novelette written by N. K. Jemisin. The story was first published by Amazon Original Stories as part of the '' Forward'' short fiction collection in September 2019. The story was well received, and it wa ...

''. Jemisin was a recipient of the

MacArthur Fellows Program The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...

Genius Grant in 2020.

Early life

Jemisin was born in

Iowa City, Iowa Iowa City, offically the City of Iowa City is a city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States. It is the home of the University of Iowa and county seat of Johnson County, at the center of the Iowa City Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the tim ...

, and grew up in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and

Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 census. It is the fourth-most-populous city in Alabama ...

. Jemisin attended

Tulane University Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into a comprehensive pub ...

from 1990 to 1994, where she received a B.S. in

psychology Psychology is the science, scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immens ...

. She went on to study counseling and earn her

Master of Education The Master of Education (MEd or M.Ed. or Ed.M.; Latin ''Magister Educationis'' or ''Educationis Magister'') is a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. This degree in education often includes the following majors: curriculum a ...

from the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of ...

. She lived in Massachusetts for ten years and then moved to New York City. She worked as a

counseling psychologist Counseling psychology is a psychological specialty that encompasses research and applied work in several broad domains: counseling process and outcome; supervision and training; career development and counseling; and prevention and health. ...

and career counselor before writing full-time.

Career

A graduate of the 2002

Viable Paradise Viable Paradise is an annual one-week residential writing workshop held each autumn on the island of Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts and is focused on speculative fiction. The workshop began in 1997, as part of a science fiction convention pre ...

writing workshop, Jemisin has published short stories and novels. She was a member of the Boston-area writing group BRAWLers, and as of 2010 was a member of Altered Fluid, a speculative fiction critique group. In 2009 and 2010, Jemisin's short story "

Non-Zero Probabilities "Non-Zero Probabilities" is a speculative fiction short story by N.K. Jemisin, published in 2009 in ''Clarkesworld Magazine.'' The story features a semi-apocalyptic New York City where the laws of probability have shifted, and follows a young ...

" was a finalist for the

Nebula A nebula ('cloud' or 'fog' in Latin; pl. nebulae, nebulæ or nebulas) is a distinct luminescent part of interstellar medium, which can consist of ionized, neutral or molecular hydrogen and also cosmic dust. Nebulae are often star-forming regio ...

and Hugo Best Short Story Awards. Jemisin's

, '' The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms'', the first volume in her ''Inheritance Trilogy'', was published in 2010. It was nominated for the 2010

Nebula Award The Nebula Awards annually recognize the best works of science fiction or fantasy published in the United States. The awards are organized and awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), a nonprofit association of prof ...

and short-listed for the

James Tiptree Jr. Award The Otherwise Award, formerly known as the James Tiptree Jr. Award, is an American annual literary prize for works of science fiction or fantasy that expand or explore one's understanding of gender. It was initiated in February 1991 by science f ...

. In 2011, it was nominated for the

Hugo Award The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier ...

World Fantasy Award The World Fantasy Awards are a set of awards given each year for the best fantasy fiction published during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by the World Fantasy Convention, the awards are given each year at the eponymous ann ...

, and Locus Award, winning the 2011

Locus Award for Best First Novel The Locus Award for Best First Novel is one of the annual Locus Awards presented by the science fiction and fantasy magazine '' Locus''. Awards presented in a given year are for works published in the previous calendar year. The award for Best Fi ...

. It was followed by two further novels in the same trilogy – ''

The Broken Kingdoms ''The Broken Kingdoms'' is a fantasy novel by American writer N. K. Jemisin, the second book of her ''Inheritance'' trilogy. It takes place ten years after the events of ''The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms'' and centers around a young woman name ...

'' in 2010 and '' The Kingdom of Gods'' in 2011. During her delivery of the Guest of Honour speech at the 2013 Continuum in Australia, Jemisin pointed out that 10% of the

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, doing business as Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, commonly known as SFWA ( or ) is a Non-profit organization, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization of professional science fiction an ...

(SFWA) membership voted for

alt-right The alt-right, an abbreviation of alternative right, is a far-right, white nationalist movement. A largely online phenomenon, the alt-right originated in the United States during the late 2000s before increasing in popularity during the mid-2 ...

writer

Theodore Beale Theodore Robert Beale (born August 21, 1968), also known as Vox Day, is an American far-right activist, writer, publisher, and video game designer. He has been described as a white supremacist, a misogynist, and part of the alt-right. ''The Wall ...

in his bid for the SFWA presidential position, stating that silence about Beale's views was the same as enabling them. Beale's response to Jemisin was condemned as "an appallingly racist screed". A link to his comments was tweeted on the SFWA Authors

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

feed, and Beale was subsequently expelled from the organization after a unanimous vote by the SFWA Board. Jemisin was a co- Guest of Honor of the 2014 WisCon

science fiction convention Science fiction conventions are gatherings of fans of the speculative fiction genre, science fiction. Historically, science fiction conventions had focused primarily on literature, but the purview of many extends to such other avenues of expre ...

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th ...

. At that time, '' GQ'' described her as having "a day job as a counseling psychologist." She was the Author Guest of Honor at Arisia 2015 in Boston, Massachusetts. In January 2016, Jemisin started writing "Otherworldly", a bimonthly column for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. In May 2016, Jemisin mounted a

Patreon Patreon (, ) is a membership platform that provides business tools for content creators to run a subscription service. It helps creators and artists earn a monthly income by providing rewards and perks to their subscribers. Patreon charges a com ...

campaign which raised sufficient funding to allow her to quit her job as a counseling psychologist and focus full-time on her writing. Jemisin's novel '' The Fifth Season'' was published in 2015, the first of the ''Broken Earth'' trilogy. ''The Fifth Season'' won the

, making Jemisin the first

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

writer to win a Hugo award in that category. The sequels in the trilogy, '' The Obelisk Gate'' and '' The Stone Sky'', won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2017 and 2018, respectively, making Jemisin the first author to win the

in three consecutive years, as well as the first to win for all three novels in a trilogy. In 2017, ''Bustle'' called Jemisin "the sci-fi writer every woman needs to be reading". With Mac Walters, Jemisin co-authored the 2017 book '' Mass Effect: Andromeda Initiation'', the second in a

book series A book series is a sequence of books having certain characteristics in common that are formally identified together as a group. Book series can be organized in different ways, such as written by the same author, or marketed as a group by their pub ...

based on the video game '' Mass Effect: Andromeda''. Jemisin published a short story collection, '' How Long 'til Black Future Month?'' in November 2018. It contains stories written from 2004 to 2017 and four new works. '' Far Sector'', a twelve-issue limited series comic written by Jemisin with art by Jamal Campbell, began publication in 2019. It was nominated for the 2021

Eisner Award The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are List of Eisner Award winners, prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books, sometimes referred to as the comics industry's equivalent of the Acad ...

for Best Limited Series. Jemisin's urban fantasy novel ''

The City We Became ''The City We Became'' is a 2020 urban fantasy novel by N. K. Jemisin. It was developed from her short story "The City Born Great", first published in her collection '' How Long 'til Black Future Month?'' It is her first novel since her triple Hu ...

'' was published in March 2020. In October 2020, Jemisin was announced as a recipient of the

Genius Grant. In June 2021, Sony's

TriStar Pictures TriStar Pictures, Inc. (spelled as Tri-Star until 1991) is an American film studio and production company that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, part of the multinational conglomerate Sony. It is a corporate sibling of Sony ...

won the rights to adapt ''The Broken Earth'' trilogy in a seven-figure deal with Jemisin adapting the novels for the screen herself. In 2021, she was included in the ''Time'' 100, ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

''s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. ''The World We Make'', a sequel to Jemisin's 2020 novel, was released in November 2022.

Personal life

Jemisin lives and works in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York. She is first cousin once removed to stand-up comic and television host

W. Kamau Bell Walter Kamau Bell (born January 26, 1973) is an American stand-up comic and television host. He has hosted the CNN series ''United Shades of America'' since 2016, and hosted FXX television series '' Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell'' from 2012 ...

Awards and honors

Novels

In 2022, ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

'' named ''The World We Make'' one of the best science fiction and fantasy books of the year. Jemisin is the first author to win three successive

Hugo Awards The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier ...

for Best Novel, as well as the first to win for all novels in a trilogy. She has also received the following accolades: * ''The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms'' (2010) won the Sense of Gender Award, and was nominated for the

Crawford Award :::''See also'' Crawford Medal The IAFA William L. Crawford Fantasy Award (short: Crawford award) is a literary award given to a writer whose first fantasy book was published during the preceding 18 months. It's one of several awards presented by ...

, Gemmell Award for Best Fantasy Newcomer, Prix Imaginales for Best Foreign Novel and

Tiptree Award The Otherwise Award, formerly known as the James Tiptree Jr. Award, is an American annual literary prize for works of science fiction or fantasy that expand or explore one's understanding of gender. It was initiated in February 1991 by science ...

for Best Novel. * ''The Broken Kingdoms'' (2010) and ''The Shadowed Sun'' (2012) both won the

Romantic Times ''Romantic Times'' was an American genre magazine specializing in romance novel A romance novel or romantic novel generally refers to a type of genre fiction novel which places its primary focus on the relationship and Romance (love), roma ...

Reviewers' Choice Award for Best Fantasy Novel. * ''The City We Became'' (2020) won the

BSFA Award for Best Novel The BSFA Awards are given every year by the British Science Fiction Association. The Best Novel award is open to any novel-length work of science fiction or fantasy that has been published in the UK for the first time in the previous year. Seriali ...

Short fiction

* The short story "Cloud Dragon Skies" (2005) was shortlisted for the Carl Brandon Society's Parallax Award. * The collection ''How Long 'til Black Future Month?'' (2018) won the

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members ...

Alex Award The Alex Awards annually recognize "ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults ages 12 through 18". Essentially, the award is a listing by the American Library Association parallel to its annual Best Books for Young A ...

, and was nominated for the

World Fantasy Award for Best Collection In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

Partial bibliography

Novels

Inheritance Trilogy

*'' The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms'' (2010) *''

'' (2010) *'' The Kingdom of Gods'' (2011) A

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) fact ...

entitled ''The Awakened Kingdom'' set as a sequel to the Inheritance Trilogy was released along with an omnibus of the trilogy on December 9, 2014. A

triptych A triptych ( ; from the Greek adjective ''τρίπτυχον'' "''triptukhon''" ("three-fold"), from ''tri'', i.e., "three" and ''ptysso'', i.e., "to fold" or ''ptyx'', i.e., "fold") is a work of art (usually a panel painting) that is divided ...

entitled ''Shades in Shadow'' was released on July 28, 2015. It contained three short stories, including a

prequel A prequel is a literary, dramatic or cinematic work whose story precedes that of a previous work, by focusing on events that occur before the original narrative. A prequel is a work that forms part of a backstory to the preceding work. The term ...

to the trilogy.

Dreamblood Duology

*''

The Killing Moon "The Killing Moon" is a song by the band Echo & the Bunnymen. It was released on 20 January 1984 as the lead single from their 1984 album, '' Ocean Rain''. It is one of the band's highest-charting hits, reaching number 9 in the UK Singles Ch ...

'' (2012) *''The Shadowed Sun'' (2012)

Broken Earth series

* '' The Fifth Season'' (2015) * '' The Obelisk Gate'' (2016) * '' The Stone Sky'' (2017)

''Mass Effect: Andromeda''

* '' Mass Effect: Andromeda Initiation'' (with Mac Walters, 2017)

Great Cities Series

*''

'' (2020) *''The World We Make'' (2022) The short story ''The City Born Great'', released in 2016, is the precursor to the series.

Short stories

*"L'Alchimista", published in ''Scattered, Covered, Smothered'', Two Cranes Press, 2004. Honorable Mention in ''

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror ''Year's Best Fantasy and Horror'' was a reprint anthology published annually by St. Martin's Press from 1987 to 2008. In addition to the short stories, supplemented by a list of honorable mentions, each edition included a number of retrospective ...

, 18th collection''. Also available as an ''

Escape Pod An escape pod, escape capsule, life capsule, or lifepod is a capsule or craft, usually only big enough for one person, used to escape from a vessel in an emergency. An escape ship is a larger, more complete craft also used for the same purpose ...

'' episode. *"Too Many Yesterdays, Not Enough Tomorrows", ''

Ideomancer ''Ideomancer'' was a Canadian quarterly online speculative fiction magazine whose contents included science fiction, fantasy, slipstream, horror, flash fiction and speculative poetry, along with reviews and interviews. The first issue debuted ...

'', 2004. *"Cloud Dragon Skies", ''Strange Horizons'', 2005. Also an ''Escape Pod'' episode *"Red Riding-Hood's Child", ''Fishnet'', 2005. *"The You Train", ''

Strange Horizons ''Strange Horizons'' is an online speculative fiction magazine. It also features speculative poetry and nonfiction in every issue, including reviews, essays, interviews, and roundtables. History and profile It was launched in September 2000, and ...

'', 2007. *"Bittersweet", ''

Abyss & Apex Magazine ''Abyss & Apex Magazine'' (''A&A'') is a long-running, semi-pro online speculative fiction magazine. The title of the zine comes from a quote by Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), "And if you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you ...

'', 2007. *"The Narcomancer", ''Helix'', reprinted in ''Transcriptase'', 2007. *"The Brides of Heaven", ''Helix'', reprinted in ''Transcriptase'', 2007. *"Playing Nice With God's Bowling Ball", ''Baen's Universe'', 2008. *"The Dancer's War", published in ''Like Twin Stars: Bisexual Erotic Stories'',

Circlet Press Circlet Press is a publishing house in Cambridge, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It was founded by Cecilia Tan, who is also its manager. It specializes in science fiction erotica, a once uncommon genre, and its publications often feature BDS ...

, 2009. *"Non-Zero Probabilities", ''Clarkesworld Magazine'', 2009. *"Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints in the City Beneath the Still Waters", '' Postscripts'', 2010. *"On the Banks of the River Lex", ''

Clarkesworld Magazine ''Clarkesworld Magazine'' (ISSN 1937-7843) is an American online fantasy and science fiction magazine. It released its first issue October 1, 2006 and has maintained a regular monthly schedule since, publishing fiction by authors such as Elizabe ...

'', 11/2010. *"The Effluent Engine", published in ''Steam-Powered: Lesbian Steampunk Stories'', Torquere Press, 2011. *"The Trojan Girl", ''

Weird Tales ''Weird Tales'' is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in late 1922. The first issue, dated March 1923, appeared on newsstands February 18. The first editor, Edwin Baird, pri ...

'', 2011. *"Valedictorian", published in ''After: Nineteen Stories of Apocalypse and Dystopia'', Hyperion Book CH, 2012. *"Walking Awake", ''Lightspeed'', 2014. *"Stone Hunger", ''Clarkesworld Magazine'', 2014. *"Sunshine Ninety-Nine", ''

Popular Science ''Popular Science'' (also known as ''PopSci'') is an American digital magazine carrying popular science content, which refers to articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. ''Popular Science'' has won over 58 awards, incl ...

'', 2015. *"The City Born Great", published as a Tor.com exclusive available for free online, 2016. *"Red Dirt Witch", ''Fantasy Magazine: PoC Destroy Fantasy'', 2016. *"The Evaluators", ''

Wired Magazine ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fr ...

'', 2016. *"Henosis", ''

Uncanny Magazine ''Uncanny Magazine'' is an American science fiction and fantasy online magazine, edited and published by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, based in Urbana, Illinois. Its mascot is a space unicorn. The editors-in-chief, who originall ...

'', 2017. *"Give Me Cornbread or Give Me Death", ''A People's Future of the United States'', 2017. *"The Storyteller's Replacement", ''How Long til Black Future Month'', 2018. *"The Elevator Dancer", ''How Long til Black Future Month'', 2018. *"Cuisine des Mémoires", ''How Long til Black Future Month'', 2018. *"

", ''Amazon Original Stories:Forward'', 2019. Winner of

for best novelette. *"The Ones Who Stay and Fight", ''Lightspeed Magazine,'' 2020''.''

Short story collections

*'' How Long 'til Black Future Month?'' (November 2018)

Nonfiction

* ''Geek Wisdom: The Sacred Teachings of Nerd Culture'' (co-written with Stephen H. Segal,

Genevieve Valentine Genevieve Valentine (born 1981) is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. Her first novel, ''Mechanique: A tale of the Circus Tresaulti'', won the Crawford Award for a first fantasy novel, and was shortlisted for the Nebula. Genevieve V ...

, Zaki Hasan, and Eric San Juan, 2011)

Comics

*'' Far Sector'' #1-12 (with Jamal Campbell, DC Comics, 2019) - nominated for the 2021

for Best Limited Series

References

External links

*
N.K. Jemisin describes worldbuildingOdyssey Workshop interview''New Yorker'' profile by Raffi Khatchadourian
(January 20, 2020) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jemisin, N. K. Living people 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American short story writers 21st-century American women writers Writers from Iowa City, Iowa African-American novelists American science fiction writers African-American women writers American women short story writers Tulane University alumni University of Maryland, College Park alumni American women novelists Steampunk writers American fantasy writers Women science fiction and fantasy writers Afrofuturist writers Black speculative fiction authors Hugo Award-winning writers Novelists from Iowa 1972 births Writers from Mobile, Alabama MacArthur Fellows