N. K. Jemisin, American fantasy and science fiction author
© Laura Hanifin 2015 (licensed under CC BY 4.0)

In honor of international literacy day, World Book is celebrating the writer of the “Broken Earth” trilogy, N. K. Jemisin. Jemisin is an American author of fantasy and science fiction. She is known for creating dynamic fantasy worlds destabilized by cultural conflict, inequality, and oppression. In 2016, she won a Hugo Award, the most prestigious award in science fiction, for her novel The Fifth Season (2015). Jemisin became the first Black American author to win in the novel category. The book’s sequels, The Obelisk Gate (2016) and The Stone Sky (2017), won Hugo Awards in 2017 and 2018, making Jemisin the first author to win in the novel category three years in a row.

The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate, and The Stone Sky make up Jemisin’s “Broken Earth” trilogy. The trilogy is set in the Stillness, a post-apocalyptic world wracked by earthquakes and other disasters. A race of people called Orogenes have the ability to control natural forces, but they are feared, oppressed, and persecuted for their powers.

Jemisin began her career in fantasy and science fiction writing short stories. Her first published novels were the “Inheritance” trilogy: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and The Broken Kingdoms (both 2010) and The Kingdom of Gods (2011). The trilogy takes place in an empire where gods have been enslaved to human beings. The novels The Killing Moon and The Shadowed Sun (both 2012) are set in an ancient Egypt-like world where people known as Gatherers accumulate magic power by harvesting people’s dreams. The protagonists of The City We Became (2020) are avatars (living embodiments) of the five boroughs (sections) of New York City. Jemisin’s short fiction was collected in How Long ’til Black Future Month (2018).

Nora Keita Jemisin was born Sept. 19, 1972, in Iowa City. She grew up with her mother in Mobile, Alabama, spending summers with her father in New York City. She earned a B.S. degree in psychology from Tulane University in New Orleans in 1994. She earned a master’s degree in education from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1997. She worked as a counselor, psychologist, and university administrator before becoming a full-time writer.