N.K. Jemisin

N.K. Jemisin (born September 19, 1972, Iowa City, Iowa, U.S.) is an American author of science-fiction and fantasy short stories and novels. She often explores issues such as racism, cultural conflict, and family relationships in her work. In 2016, Jemisin became the first Black writer to win a Hugo Award for best novel, for The Fifth Season (2015). She went on to win the award for the next two books in the trilogy, making her the first author to win three consecutive Hugo Awards (2016–18) for best novel.

When Jemisin was a year old, her family moved to New York City from Iowa City, Iowa. A few years later her parents divorced, and Jemisin went to live with her mother in Mobile, Alabama, but returned to New York City during summer vacations. She was an avid reader from an early age, and she began writing when she was eight years old.

Jemisin graduated from Tulane University in New Orleans in 1994 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Three years later she received a master’s degree in education from the University of Maryland at College Park. She became a career counselor at various colleges in Massachusetts. After turning 30, Jemisin began writing in earnest in the evenings. She had her first short story, “Too Many Yesterdays, Not Enough Tomorrows,” published in the Canadian magazine Ideomancer in 2004.

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12 Contemporary Black Authors You Must Read: N.K. Jemisin

Jemisin’s first novel, The Killing Moon (2012), centres on Gujaareh, a city with a culture resembling that of ancient Egypt. A group of priestly Gatherers harvest healing magic from people’s dreams in order to keep peace in the city. Soon, however, one of them, Ehiru, discovers corruption and deceit within their religion. Determined to appeal to a wider sci-fi audience, she began writing what became The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (2010). The book follows Yeine, a female warrior who gets involved in power struggles between mortals and gods while trying to solve her mother’s murder in the floating city of Sky, which is ruled by the mortal Arameri family, whose power comes from gods they have enslaved. The book is the first in the Inheritance Trilogy; the other two novels continuing the mortal-versus-god saga are The Broken Kingdoms (2010) and The Kingdom of Gods (2011). Three short stories set in the world of the Inheritance Trilogy were collected in Shades in Shadow (2015).

After publishing a sequel to The Killing Moon titled The Shadowed Sun (2012), Jemisin began writing the Broken Earth Trilogy. The series includes The Fifth Season (2015), The Obelisk Gate (2016), and The Stone Sky (2017), the last of which won the Nebula Award for best novel. The books describe a far-future Earth that suffers “fifth seasons,” periods of geologic and climatic catastrophe. A woman with secret powers allowing her to manipulate geologic forces tries to save her kidnapped daughter, who also shares the same powers. Each book was popular with both audiences and critics and earned Hugo Awards in the novel category. (The World Science Fiction Society grants the Hugo Awards for notable achievement in science fiction or science fantasy.) While working on these books, Jemisin also wrote a science fiction and fantasy column called “Otherworldly” for the New York Times Book Review. She quit her university job in 2016 to concentrate on writing full time.

In 2018 Jemisin published a collection of short stories titled How Long ’til Black Future Month? She subsequently released “Emergency Skin” (2019), in which an explorer whose people fled centuries before returns to Earth and does not find the postapocalyptic world he expected; “Emergency Skin” won the Hugo Award in 2020 for best novelette. She then returned to novels, writing The City We Became (2020). In the book, New York City is embodied in six people who have to fight tentacled monsters so that the city can fully come to life. Also in 2020 Jemisin was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. That same year, she began writing a DC Comics series, Far Sector, set in the Green Lantern universe, in which a rookie Green Lantern, Jo Mullein, is assigned to City Enduring, a planet whose inhabitants have had their emotions removed, to solve why the first murder in 500 years occurred. Far Sector won the Hugo Award in 2022 for best graphic story or comic. She released The World We Make, the follow-up to The City We Became, in 2022.