Sofia Samatar (born October 24, 1971) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

poet, novelist and educator from

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...

Early life

Samatar was born in 1971 in northern

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. Her father was the

Somali Somali may refer to: Horn of Africa * Somalis, an inhabitant or ethnicity associated with Greater Somali Region ** Proto-Somali, the ancestors of modern Somalis ** Somali culture ** Somali cuisine ** Somali language, a Cushitic language ** Somali ...

scholar, historian and writer

Said Sheikh Samatar Said Sheikh Samatar ( so, Siciid Sheekh Samatar, ar, سعيد الشيخ سمتر‎; 1943–24 February 2015) was a prominent Somali scholar and writer. Biography Early years Said was born in 1943 in the Ogaden in Ethiopia to Faduma and Sh ...

. Her mother is a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland *Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri *Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia *Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports * Swiss Internation ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

Mennonite Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the R ...

from

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, ...

. Sofia's parents met in 1970 in

Mogadishu Mogadishu (, also ; so, Muqdisho or ; ar, مقديشو ; it, Mogadiscio ), locally known as Xamar or Hamar, is the capital and List of cities in Somalia by population, most populous city of Somalia. The city has served as an important port ...

Somalia Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constitut ...

, while her mother was teaching English. Samatar attended a Mennonite high school before studying at

Goshen College Goshen College is a private Mennonite liberal arts college in Goshen, Indiana. It was founded in 1894 as the Elkhart Institute of Science, Industry and the Arts, and is affiliated with Mennonite Church USA. The college is accredited by the High ...

Goshen, Indiana Goshen ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Elkhart County, Indiana, United States. It is the smaller of the two principal cities of the Elkhart-Goshen Metropolitan Statistical Area, which in turn is part of the South Bend-Elkhart-Mishawaka ...

, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English. In 1997, Samatar earned a Master's degree in African languages and literature from the

University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

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 ...

and a Ph.D. in 2013 in contemporary

Arabic literature Arabic literature ( ar, الأدب العربي / ALA-LC: ''al-Adab al-‘Arabī'') is the writing, both as prose and poetry, produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is '' Adab'', which is derived from ...

. She is an Assistant Professor of English at

James Madison University James Madison University (JMU, Madison, or James Madison) is a public research university in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Founded in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Harrisonburg, the institution was renamed Madison Coll ...

Career

Samatar's first novel ''A Stranger in Olondria'' was published in 2013. Samatar has also published qasīdas in English and collaborated with her brother on a book of illustrated prose poems, entitled ''Monster Portraits'', which was published in 2018 by Rose Metal Press. A sequel to ''A Stranger in Olondria'', entitled ''The Winged Histories,'' was published by Small Beer Press in 2016. Samatar's main literary influences include:

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the Modernism, modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important ...

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born ...

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most o ...

Rainer Maria Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), shortened to Rainer Maria Rilke (), was an Austrian poet and novelist. He has been acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, and is widely recogn ...

, as well as Somali mythology. Samatar served as a nonfiction and poetry editor for ''Interfictions: A Journal of Interstitial Arts''. In 2022, she published her first nonfiction book, ''The White Mosque'', a memoir about a trip to

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked co ...

in search of the followers of fringe religious leader Claas Epp Jr.

Awards

Samatar's short story "Selkie Stories Are for Losers" was a finalist for both the 2014

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 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 Short Story, as well as the

British Science Fiction Association Award The BSFA Awards are literary awards presented annually since 1970 by the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) to honour works in the genre of science fiction. Nominees and winners are chosen based on a vote of BSFA members. More recently, m ...

and the

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 ...

. Additionally, Samatar's poem "APACHE CHIEF" was a finalist for a

Rhysling Award __NOTOC__ The Rhysling Awards are an annual award given for the best science fiction, fantasy, or horror poem of the year. Unlike most literary awards, which are named for the creator of the award, the subject of the award, or a noted member of t ...

. In 2014, Samatar won the

British Fantasy Award The British Fantasy Awards (BFA) are awarded annually by the British Fantasy Society (BFS), first in 1976. Prior to that they were known as The August Derleth Fantasy Awards (see August Derleth Award). First awarded in 1972 (to ''The Knight of ...

for Best Novel (the Robert Holdstock Award) for her book ''A Stranger in Olondria''. She was also presented the World Fantasy Award for the work. In addition, Samatar received the 2014 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. She likewise won 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 ...

and was a finalist for 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 ...

for Best First Novel. Samatar's ''Monster Portraits,'' a collection of short fiction published in February 2018, was a finalist for the Calvino Prize.

Personal

Samatar is married to American writer Keith R. Miller. They have two children, Isabel and Dominic (Nico). Although her father was a

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

, she is a Mennonite like her mother.

Selected bibliography

;Novels *''A Stranger in Olondria'' (Small Beer Press, 2013) *''The Winged Histories'' (Small Beer Press, 2016) ;Nonfiction *''The White Mosque'' (Catapult, 2022) ;Collection *''Tender'' (Small Beer Press, 2017) ;Short fiction *"Meet Me in Iram" (Guillotine Series No. 10, 2015) *"The Closest Thing to Animals" (''Fireside Fiction'', 2015'') *"Tender" (''OmniVerse'', 2015) *"Request for an Extension on the ''Clarity''" (''Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet'', 2015) *"Those" (''Uncanny Magazine'', 2015) *"Walkdog" (''Kaleidoscope: Diverse YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories'', 2014) *"A Girl Who Comes Out of a Chamber at Regular Intervals" (''Lackington's'', 2014) *"Ogres of East Africa" (''Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History'', 2014) *"How to Get Back to the Forest" (''Lightspeed'', 2014) *"Olimpia's Ghost" (''Phantom Drift'', 2013) *"How I Met the Ghoul" (''Eleven Eleven'', 2013) *"Bess, the Landlord's Daughter, Goes for Drinks with the Green Girl" (''Glitter & Mayhem'', 2013) *"I Stole the D.C.'s Eyeglass" (''We See a Different Frontier: A Postcolonial Speculative Fiction Anthology'', 2013) *"Dawn and the Maiden" (''Apex Magazine'', 2013) *"Selkie Stories Are for Losers" (''Strange Horizons'', 2013) *"Honey Bear" (''Clarkesworld Magazine'', 2012) *"A Brief History of Nonduality Studies" (''Expanded Horizons'', 2012) *"The Nazir" (''Ideomancer'', 2012) *''Monster Portraits'' (collection) (Rose Metal Press, 2017) *''Tender'' (collection) (Small Beer Press, 2017) ;Poetry *"Make the Night Go Faster" (''Liminality'', 2014) *"The Death of Araweilo" (''Tor.com'', 2014) *"Long-Ear" (''Stone Telling'', 2014) *"APACHE CHIEF" (''Flying Higher: An Anthology of Superhero Poetry'', 2013) *"Persephone Set Free" (''Mythic Delirium'', 2013) *"Undoomed" (''Ideomancer'', 2013) *"Shahrazad Spoils the Coffee" (''Jabberwocky'', 2012) *"Snowbound in Hamadan" (''Stone Telling'', 2012) *"Burnt Lyric" (''Goblin Fruit'', 2012) *"The Hunchback's Mother" (''inkscrawl'', 2012) *"Lost Letter" (''Strange Horizons'', 2012) *"Qasida of the Ferryman" (''Goblin Fruit'', 2012) *"The Year of Disasters" (''Bull Spec'', 2012) *"Girl Hours" (''Stone Telling'', 2011) *"The Sand Diviner" (''Stone Telling'', 2011)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Samatar, Sofia 1971 births Living people American people of Somali descent American people of German descent American people of Swiss descent Somalian women novelists American science fiction writers Women science fiction and fantasy writers Goshen College alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni Novelists from Indiana California State University Channel Islands faculty James Madison University faculty 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American poets 21st-century American women writers American women poets American women novelists American women short story writers World Fantasy Award-winning writers 21st-century American short story writers Poets from Indiana 20th-century Somalian women writers 20th-century Somalian writers 21st-century Somalian women writers 21st-century Somalian writers African-American Christians African-American poets African-American women academics American women academics African-American academics African-American women writers American Mennonites Christians from Indiana Somali Christians Mennonite writers Mennonite poets Weird fiction writers African-American novelists