world that seems deter-
mined to break you.”
The Broken Earth tril-
ogy (currently in devel-
opment as a TNT series)
is a prescient allegory
of racial and political
tensions. It’s set on an
enormous single conti-
nent reeling from a cli-
mate catastrophe. As
survivors cluster in the
aftermath, it traces the
processes of systemiccreators has gone on for
far too long; certain
extremist “gatekeeping”
Hugo voters even tried
to keep Jemisin from
winning. “For some of
us, things have always
been hard,” she said in
her victory speech in
August. “I wrote the
Broken Earth trilogy to
speak to that struggle,
and what it takes just to
live, let alone thrive, in a“THIS SHOULD HAVE
happened a long time
ago.” It’s this line from
N.K. Jemisin, author of
the Broken Earth fan-
tasy trilogy, that best
sums up the feeling
behind the successes
she’s had over the past
few years. In 2016 she
became thefirst
African-American to win
the Hugo Award for
Best Novel. But the sen-
timent encompasses so
much more.
Jemisin won that
same award for science-
fiction and fantasy
writing—the most pres-
tigious of its kind—in
2017 and again this year,
a perfect sweep for her
series. It’s a remarkable
turn of events that indi-
cates, per Jemisin, a
“sea change.” But she’s
still absorbing the news.
“I’m a black person who
grew up loving sci-fi
and fantasy—people of
color, as consumers,
have been here all
along,” she says. But
their exclusion asFantasy’s New Queen
N.K. Jemisinis the first person ever to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel three years in a row—and the only
black writer to win the prize, period. In doing so, she’s shaking up an entire genre.BY DAVID CANFIELDoppression. Jemisin
employs plenty of sci-fi
magic, but maintains an
intense realism. That,
she argues, is where her
books’ explosive timeli-
ness stems from. (“It’s
political because the
existence of certain
people is politicized,”
she explains.) Aside
from history, she leaned
on deeply personal
experiences to bringfamiliar elements into
her fictional universe.
Her work as a career
counselor, for instance,
informed her profound
exploration of inherited
trauma. “You’ve got the
guywhocan’tholda
job because his boss
reminds him of [his
abuser] from [child-
hood],” Jemisin says.
“I encountered people
dealing withstuf like
that, so I understand
how trauma works.”
Jemisin is now a pillar
of speculative fiction,
breathtakingly imagina-
tive and narratively bold.
Her gifts, especially the
strength of her provoca-
tions, are rooted in her
humanity. A little make-
believe helps her locate
those universal truths. “I
depict societies as they
feel realistic to me,” she
says. “I think the whole
point of world-building
is to make a world that
feels realistic—even if
it’s a world where drag-
ons and sentient rock
people abound.”FOR SOME OF
US, THINGS
HAVE ALWAYS
BEEN HARD.
I WROTE THE
BROKEN EARTH
TRILOGY TO
SPEAK TO THAT
STRUGGLE.”
—N.K. JEMISINSEPTEMBER 14, 2018 EW.COM 65Books
ILLUSTRATION BYLIA TIN