Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki

Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki is a Nigerian speculative fiction Writer, Editor, and Publisher who is the first African-born Black author to win a Nebula Award.

He began publishing stories in 2018 and has since received a 2023 World Fantasy Award, 2021 British Fantasy Award, the 2020 Otherwise Award with the Ife-Iyoku, the Tale of Imadeyunuagbon, and two Nommo Awards, one for The Witching Hour, the best short story by an African in 2019.

He is also a multi-time finalist for several other honors including the Hugo Award, BSFA, Sturgeon Award, Nebula Award, and Nommo Award. Read Historic Nebula winner Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki came for everything and First African-born Black Nebula Award winner faces death threats & hostile embassy to attend WorldCon.

Oghenechovwe frequently writes about disability, class, inequality, and other issues related to colonization and decolonization. He was a CanCon GoH and a guest of honor at the Afrofuturism-themed ICFA 44 where he coined a new term/genre label Afropantheology, a distinct genre of speculative fiction “conceived to capture the gamut of African works which, though having fantasy elements, are also imbued with African spiritual realities. Read Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki: Decolonizing the Mind and Between Dystopias: The Road to Afropantheology.

In 2021, Oghenechovwe’s climate fiction novelette O2 Arena was published in Galaxy’s Edge magazine and received the Nebula Award, making him the first African-born Black author to be so honored. The novelette was also a finalist for the Hugo Award and other awards. This Is Africa described the story as a “biopolitical dystopia in which oxygen has become a commodity, with all the possible class implications.” His 2022 short story Destiny Delayed, published in Asimov’s Science Fiction, was a finalist for the 2022 Nebula Award. Read Historic Nebula winner Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki came for everything.

His Between Dystopias: The Road to Afropantheology, co-written with Joshua Uchenna Omenga, focused on the study of African (and African-descended) religions, gods, and the bodies of knowledge associated with them. The book contains thirteen stories and three essays “exploring the belief systems and lived experiences that inform African speculative fiction” and the “schism between Western and African perspectives on speculative fiction. Read Afropantheology And The Best Of African Speculative Fiction.

Oghenechovwe’s fiction and nonfiction have also appeared in Omenana Magazine, Cosmic Roots, Eldritch Shores, Tor.com, Strange Horizons, Uncanny Magazine, and NBC. He is a member of the African Speculative Fiction Society, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, the Horror Writers Association, and the Codex Writers Group.

Oghenechovwe has edited several books and magazines, starting with the British Fantasy Award Winner for Best Anthology Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora (2020, with Zelda Knight). This anthology was also a finalist for the 2021 Locus Award and the 2020 This Is Horror Award.

Oghenechovwe edited The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction: Volume 1 (2021) and published the anthology in 2021 through his own Jembefola Press. In 2022, he edited and published Bridging Worlds: Global Conversations On Creating Pan-African Speculative Literature In a Pandemic. The anthology was a finalist for the Locus Award for Non-Fiction.

In 2022, he coedited the Tor Books anthology Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, alongside Sheree Renée Thomas and Knight. The anthology was a finalist for the Locus Award for Best Anthology and was a finalist for the 2023 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Fiction.

He also coedited Invictus Quarterly, a journal of illustrated SF, with Knight, an issue of the Selene Quarterly Magazine, the collections issue of Interstellar Flight Press, and Anthology Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, coedited with Sheree Renée Thomas & Knight.

He has been a multi-time finalist in the editing category for the Hugo and Locus Awards. Read Afropantheology and the Future of African Speculative Fiction: A Conversation with Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki.

Oghenechovwe was born in Ughelli, Delta State, Nigeria. He studied law at the University of Lagos.

Listen to PodCastle 762: INDIGENOUS MAGIC – The Witching Hour.

Read 5 Post-Apocalyptic and Dystopian Stories by African Authors, Let’s Get Nigerian Sci-Fi Author Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki to Glasgow!, and Too Dystopian for Whom? A Continental Nigerian Writer’s Perspective.

Read the interview “The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction 2022” Co-Editor Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki and Fiona Moore interviews Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki.

Visit his Homepage, GoodReads page, Amazon page, ISFDB bibliography, and Wikipedia page. Follow him on the Science Fiction Awards Database, SFE, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and Twitter.