Stephen Embleton's Blog, page 2

INTERVIEW: JAYLIT

In this interview, Stephen talks to Ibrahim Babátúndé Ibrahim about his journey from KwaZulu-Natal to Oxford, his many creative interests, how being a designer and filmmaker (among other things) influence his writing, and much more. Please come along for a beautiful and insightful read!

Read the full interview here.

Royal Literary Fund Grant

I am extremely grateful to say I have been awarded a grant by the Royal Literary Fund. 

It’s not something I would have thought I would need, or even thought existed, if it weren’t for a Brittle Paper article in June. I am always grateful to Brittle Paper for everything they do for our literary community.

The criteria for applying, the process and the care and sensitivity from the people involved is rather humbling as well as encouraging, given that the literary merit of my body of work is thoroughly considered along with my financial circumstances. Financial circumstances being the main reason for the existence of the RLF since the 1700s. 

Apart from having to be a British citizen, they had to read physical copies of two works published in the UK (Soul Searching and Bones & Runes). And it is encouraging to know that genre fiction is viewed as having literary merit. Also considered are any broader activities related to writing, from lecturing, public speaking, awards — engaging with people in furthering literature as well as recognition of my work out there.

Nothing was taken lightly. They treated me with dignity and kept reiterating two points: this is not for a specific project or pitch, rather this is to support you to write! i.e. to not be doing those things (odd jobs, part time work) that you need to do to survive which take you away from writing. I was taken aback. I still am. Gentle support, with a clear goal. Keep writing!

I haven't been able to speak about this meaningful grant publicly for dread of anyone saying, “Do you need money?” or “Are you okay?”. But a friend, a writer, reminded me there are others in similar positions that could benefit from the knowing that they are not alone. I'd even been reluctant to apply in the first place, asking for help, to rather wait things out even more – something that has not worked in the past. I had to do something. Afterall, having my wife, Riley, working her arse off to keep me writing has been a major factor in writing every chance I get, and we, she, needed some relief. I’ve worked part time retail jobs packing shelves, day-labour work digging, wheelbarrowing, lugging and sweating, to get by, to contribute. But that means not writing, let alone having the energy to write.

Again, I am grateful for the lives touched, including my own, by the Royal Literary Fund.

Keep writing, FFS!

Dear writer,

Know that you are not alone on this journey. You’re not alone because others have, do and will struggle to support themselves with their writing. Keep writing! You’re not alone because you have the choice to surround yourself with more of the people who support your writing, or simply support you, period. Find them. Thank them. And keep writing! There are support systems out there. Seek them out. You deserve it. 

You’re not alone because you can ping someone like me on socials, who you know struggles, and say, “I’m struggling with this writing and living thing.” And I’ll say to you: “Dear Writer. Thank you for speaking about it. You’re not alone. Keep writing!”

Yours,

A writer now in Oxford. 

World Building Essay Reviewed – BSFA Vector

Included in a broader review by Amirah Muhammad for BSFA's Vector magazine of the Bloomsbury ‘Afro-Centered Futurisms in Our Speculative Fiction’ anthology, my essay – “Cosmologies and Languages Building Africanfuturism” was mentioned.

I am grateful to the reviewer, Amirah Muhammad, for including Pule kaJanolintji in their review excerpt on our work together. There has been much positive feedback on my essay in this anthology and I am glad it is getting read and noticed out there, highlighting Pule's own projects, skills and valued creative endeavours.

Excerpt:

In particular, Embleton’s chapter emphasises the creative opportunity that language presents in speculative writing. His research in linguistics and writing systems, including Ge’ez, Nsibidi, Tifinagh, and isiBheqe soHlamvu or Ditema tsa Dinoko, led to the creation of the word Huriǁhaoǃnakhoena for his novel, Soul Searching (2020). Embleton writes that “Huriǁhaoǃnakhoena is both a word and a phrase – literally translated, it means ‘the people who built the settlements in the sea’”. The word is a microcosm for the ways that Embleton has combined the technical research involved in writing his novel (including his collaboration with Pule kaJanolintji), with the ways that language evolves to reflect cosmology for both real and fictional worlds.

Read the full review by Amirah Muhammad here on Vector.

 

Featured: Brittle Paper 43 Short Stories New African Sci-fi/Fantasy

 

Thanks to Dr Ainehi Edoro and Brittle Paper for an excellent feature of African Science Fiction and Fantasy short stories, including my Sauúti novella "Undulation"! 🙏🏼 ❤️

43 Short Stories to Get You Caught Up on New African Sci-fi/Fantasy.

“The list features established voices like Dilman Dila, NK Jemisin, Nnedi Okorafor, Deji Bryce Olukotun, Tade Thompson, Stephen Embleton, and many who are relatively new on the scene like Tobi Ogundiran and Adam Oyebanjo.”

Featuring 6 The Sauúti Collective stories, 5 in the Mothersound Anthology. 

Adelehin Ijasan – “Xhova”Somto Ihezue and Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki – “A City, A Desert and all their Dirges”Stephen Embleton – ‘Undulation”Tobias S Buckell – “The Groves Lament”J Umeh – “Kalabashing”Eugen Bacon – “Sina, The Child With No Echo”

Find out more about the Sauútiverse and the Mothersound Anthology.

2024 Nommo Award Win! Best Novella

2024 Nommo Award winner for Best Novella by an African, presented at Glasgow WorldCon, for his Sauúti novella, “Undualtion”, published by Android Press in “Mothersound: the Sauútiverse Anthology” (2023).

The Nommo Awards was special! An awesome feeling being nominated but special winning, for Sauúti. Such a great event for us all in person! Meeting friends and colleagues 🙏🏼👏🏼❤️

It was amazing to receive the Nommo Novella Award from Nnedi Okorafor, one of the best novella writers out there, and writing African stories her way.

The awesome Nnedi Okorafor





Reading from "Undulation"



With Wole Talabi and Tendai Huchu


Love these guys!

More featured on File 770.

Adinkra Font & Book Title Typography Design

It was a real pleasure to be able to create something unique for a friend and Sauúti Collective colleague – Cheryl Ntumy – for her new novella coming out with Atthis Arts press: a custom display typeface and title design.

Design & Typography: Stephen Embleton, Illustration: Akintoba Kalejaye


Find Atthis Arts here.

A latinised version of the Adinkra alphabet from Ghana (because Cheryl is Ghanaian!), it has some fantastic characteristics and a very modular form which made it a fun, yet simple, design to work on. I first focused on the letters needed for Cheryl's book cover, and then fleshed out the other characters, as well as creating a "light" version.

One happy accident for the cover design was incorporating the "working" components of each letter in the design itself. i.e. when I work on fonts, I find the common weights (stroke thicknesses) and common shapes, and move these around to exact positions. And by making them separate bright colours enables me to see each section clearly.

The Letter Forms

ADINKRA-NTUMY DISPLAY FONT
Contact me if you would like to purchase/license this font (otf format or PDF art).

I hope to use it more often.

 For reference: the Adinkra Alphabet

Adinkra Font & Book Title Design

It was a real pleasure to be able to create something unique for a friend and Sauúti Collective colleague – Cheryl Ntumy – for her new novella coming out with Atthis Arts press: a custom display typeface and title design.

Design & Typography: Stephen Embleton, Illustration: Akintoba Kalejaye


Find Atthis Arts here.

A latinised version of the Adinkra alphabet from Ghana (because Cheryl is Ghanaian!), it has some fantastic characteristics and a very modular form which made it a fun, yet simple, design to work on. I first focused on the letters needed for Cheryl's book cover, and then fleshed out the other characters, as well as creating a "light" version.

One happy accident for the cover design was incorporating the "working" components of each letter in the design itself. i.e. when I work on fonts, I find the common weights (stroke thicknesses) and common shapes, and move these around to exact positions. And by making them separate bright colours enables me to see each section clearly.

The Letter Forms

ADINKRA-NTUMY DISPLAY FONT
Contact me if you would like to purchase/license this font (otf format or PDF art).

I hope to use it more often.

 For reference: the Adinkra Alphabet

2024 Nommo Award Finalist Twice Over

 

I’m grateful to have both “Bones & Runes” (YA urban fantasy novel) and “Undulation” (my Sauúti novella) as finalists in the 2024 Illube Nommo Awards.

And to share the list with Sauúti Collective fam, Cheryl Ntumy, Eugen Bacon, Wole Talabi, Ihezue Somto Rodney and Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki

“Bones and Runes” was first acknowledged by the James Currey Prize in 2021, and believed in enough by Abibiman Publishing to publish in the UK in 2022.

🙏🏼📖👀💫

#nommoawards

Read the full category lists below, and the full Nommo Awards list here.

Novel

Bones and Runes by Stephen Embleton, (Abibiman Publishing, 2022)Dazzling by Chikodili Emelumadu (Hachette; Wildifre, Headline Publishing Group, 2023)Don’t answer when they call your name by Ukamaka Olisakwe (Masobe Books, 2023)Shigidi and the Brass Head of Olabufon  by Wole Talabi (Gollancz and DAW Books, 2023)Vagabonds! by Eloghosa Osunde, (Harper Collins; 4th Estate and Riverhead Books, 2022)Warrior of the Wind by Suyi Davies Okungbowa,  (Orbit Books, 2023)

Novella

Broken Paradise by Eugen Bacon (Luna Press Publishing, 2023)Land of the Awaiting  Birth by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki and Joshua Uchenna Omenga (from Between Dystopias: The Road to Afropantheology, ed Oghenechovwe Ekpeki Donald and Joshua Uchenna Omenga, CAEZIK SF & Fantasy, 2023)The Lies of the Ajungo by Moses Ose Utomi (Tordotcom, 2023)Undulation by  Stephen Embleton (Mothersound: The Sauútiverse Anthology, ed Wole Talabi, Android Press, 2023)

Nice Fictions Panel June 2024 (Fance)

Thanks to Mame Bougouma Diene for moderating an excellent panel at Nice Fictions on “The Building Blocks of Worldbuilding”. Mame inviced me to join Michèle Laframboise, Stéphane Arnier and Benjamin Lupu to discuss our experience in creating fictional worlds – in cluding RPG worlds and characters – and  I got to speak about The Sauúti Collective and the world we’ve created. 🪐🚀💫

Gratefully, the panel was in English!

Michèle was in Canada, Stéphane Arnier in Finland, Benjamin Lupu in-person at the Nice Fictions event (Nice, France), and Mame in Kinshasa (DRC) and myself in Mézos (France).

Watch the panel here.

Reading for Nick Wood

 

In January 2024, the BSFA (British Science Fiction Association), and producer Zoe Mantas, asked if I would record a reading of fellow African SFF writer Nick Wood's short story “A Pall of Moondust” – originally published in Fission #1.

Needless to say it was an absolute honour to read our dear departed friend's story! And pleased it was the first episode of the BSFA Pod launching in May 2024. Nick worked tirelessly to bring African SFF voices to the fore and to give us the recognition and access to the world's platforms that we need to be seen outside of the Continent.

I hope I did it justice, bru. 🙏🏼 ❤️

Now available to listen.