The author of the Broken Earth trilogy is breaking new boundaries in the genre, and setting awards records.
Keeping the make-believe realistic.
This should have happened a long time ago.
Credit: Illustration by Lia Tin for EW
Its this line from N.K.
In 2016 she became the first African-American writer to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel.
But the sentiment encompasses so much more.
Orbit
Shes the first person ever to win the Best Novel prize three years in a row.
Its a remarkable turn of events that indicates, per Jemisin, a sea change.
But shes still absorbing the news.
For some of us, things have always been hard, she said in her victory speech in August.
Im aware of the historic nature of it, she continues.
I still feel the general Oh, wow, this is a thing thats happening thing.
Its set on an enormous single continent reeling from a climate catastrophe.
As survivors cluster in the aftermath, it traces the processes of systemic oppression.
Jemisin employs plenty of sci-fi magic, but maintains an intense realism.
That, she argues, is where her books explosive timeliness stems from.
Its political because the existence of certain people is politicized, she says.
Her work as a career counselor, for instance, informed her profound exploration of inherited trauma.
I encountered people dealing with stuff like that, so I understand how trauma works.
She did at one point choose to make a run at deny it and conform.
But no amount of conformity is going to be enough to fix this problem.
As Im depicting her life, Im depicting her racial identity development.
This is just what makes a character real and realistic to me.
Jemisin cites a few iconic examples.
[Ursula] Le Guin did a great job of that, [J.R.R.]
Tolkien used it for that purpose, she begins.
She stops and corrects herself, characteristically favoring nuance: Well, scratch that.
Thats what fantasy should be.
Jemisin is now a pillar of speculative fiction, breathtakingly imaginative and narratively bold.
This is reflective of Jemisins authorial stamp.
Her gifts, especially the strength of her provocations, are rooted in her humanity.
A little make-believe helps her locate those universal truths.
I depict societies as they feelrealisticto me, she says, returning to that all-important quality.
