Allen Herring

Allen Herring asked N.K. Jemisin:

Hello. I recently reread "The City Born Great" (Great Story!) in preparation for reading the The City We Became. I read that the short inspired the book. Did you find yourself adapting the short and retaining the main character or did you find yourself taking the idea and expanding the narrative with no regard to characters and set pieces? Or, were you inspired to write the book first and test tone voice in short?

N.K. Jemisin The short story is now the prologue of THE CITY WE BECAME. :) Slightly altered, though! "The City Born Great" was what I call a proof of concept story -- I had the idea, and wrote the story to see if it was strong enough to support a novel. Turns out it was. :) Many of my novels start out this way.

More Answered Questions

Pamela Block

Pamela Block asked N.K. Jemisin:

As an anthropology professor I always remember Jamison calling anthropology science fiction. In contrast, I’ve always considered good science fiction anthropology. If you could create an anthropology class based on your books what would it be called and what of your work would be included?

Caitlin O'Neill

Caitlin O'Neill asked N.K. Jemisin:

I've found that many people have professions similar to things they enjoyed doing as children. Did you always enjoy writing or building amazing sci fi and fantasy worlds or characters?

Ms. Silk

Ms. Silk asked N.K. Jemisin:

Does this trilogy follow the short story published in Black Futures Month?

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