Nalo Hopkinson facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Nalo Hopkinson
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Hopkinson in 2007
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| Born | 20 December 1960 Kingston, Jamaica |
| Occupation | Writer, editor |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Citizenship | Canada |
| Education | Master of Arts |
| Alma mater | Seton Hill University |
| Genre | Science fiction, fantasy |
| Notable works | Brown Girl in the Ring (1998) Skin Folk (2001) The Salt Roads (2003) |
| Notable awards | Prix Aurora Award; Gaylactic Spectrum Award; Inkpot Award John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, Locus Award, Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic; World Fantasy Award |
Nalo Hopkinson (born 20 December 1960) is a talented writer and editor. She was born in Jamaica and is now a Canadian citizen. She writes amazing stories in the speculative fiction genre, which includes science fiction and fantasy.
Her books, like Brown Girl in the Ring (1998) and Midnight Robber (2000), are very popular. Her short stories, found in collections like Skin Folk (2001), are also well-loved. Nalo Hopkinson often uses themes from Caribbean history and language in her writing. She also includes the rich traditions of oral and written storytelling from the Caribbean.
Nalo Hopkinson has also worked as an editor for several story collections. These include Whispers from the Cotton Tree Root: Caribbean Fabulist Fiction and Mojo: Conjure Stories. She helped edit So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Visions of the Future in 2004. She also co-edited Tesseracts 9 with Geoff Ryman.
In 2002, she supported George Elliott Clarke's novel Whylah Falls on the CBC show Canada Reads 2002. She also created Six Impossible Things, a series of Canadian fantasy stories for CBC Radio One. As of 2021, Nalo Hopkinson lives and teaches in Vancouver, British Columbia. In 2020, she received a special honor. She was named the 37th Damon Knight Grand Master. This award recognizes her amazing lifetime achievements in science fiction and fantasy writing.
Contents
Her Early Life and Learning
Nalo Hopkinson was born on December 20, 1960, in Kingston, Jamaica. Her parents were Freda and Muhammed Abdur-Rahman Slade Hopkinson. She grew up in different places like Guyana, Trinidad, and Canada. Her home was always full of books and stories. Her mother worked in a library. Her father was a poet, playwright, and actor from Guyana. He also taught English and Latin.
Because of her family, Nalo met famous writers like Derek Walcott when she was young. She could read books by Kurt Vonnegut when she was only six years old. Her writing is inspired by the fairy tales and folk stories she read as a child. These included Afro-Caribbean tales like Anansi stories. She also enjoyed Western classics such as Gulliver's Travels, the Iliad, and the Odyssey. She even read Shakespeare around the same time she was reading Homer.
Nalo Hopkinson lived in Connecticut for a short time when her father taught at Yale University. However, moving to Toronto from Guyana at age 16 was a big change for her. She lived in Toronto from 1977 to 2011. After that, she moved to Riverside, California. There, she became a Professor of Creative Writing at University of California, Riverside.
She earned a Masters of Arts degree in Writing Popular Fiction. She studied at Seton Hill University with her teacher and mentor, the science fiction writer James Morrow.
Her Writing Career
Before becoming a professor, Nalo Hopkinson had many different jobs. She worked in libraries and as a research officer for the government. She also helped manage grants at the Toronto Arts Council. She has taught writing in many programs around the world. These include being a writer-in-residence at places like Clarion East and Clarion West.
In 2011, Nalo Hopkinson became a professor at University of California, Riverside. She teaches creative writing, focusing on science fiction, fantasy, and magical realism. She became a full professor in 2014.
As an author, Hopkinson often explores themes from Caribbean folklore. She also writes about Afro-Caribbean culture and feminism. She uses her knowledge of growing up in Caribbean communities in her stories. This includes using Creole language and creating characters from Caribbean countries like Trinidad and Jamaica.
Hopkinson has been a special speaker and guest of honor at many science fiction conventions. She is also one of the people who started the Carl Brandon Society. She serves on its board, helping to promote diversity in speculative fiction.
Some of Nalo Hopkinson's favorite writers are Samuel R. Delany, Tobias Buckell, and Charles R. Saunders. Her ideas for novels often come from songs or poems. For example, the poem "Goblin Market" by Christina Rossetti inspired her novel Sister Mine. In her free time, she enjoys sewing, cooking, gardening, and designing fabrics. She creates fabric designs based on old photos and drawings.
Awards and Achievements
Nalo Hopkinson has won many awards for her writing. In 1999, she received the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. She also won the Ontario Arts Council Foundation Award for Emerging Writers.
Her novel Brown Girl in the Ring was nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award in 1998. It also won the Locus Award for Best First Novel. In 2008, it was a finalist in Canada Reads, a competition by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Midnight Robber was nominated for the James Tiptree Jr. Memorial Award in 2000. It was also nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2001.
Her collection of short stories, Skin Folk, won the World Fantasy Award and the Sunburst Award in 2003.
The Salt Roads received the Gaylactic Spectrum Award in 2004. This award is for stories that explore queer issues in speculative fiction in a positive way. The book was also nominated for the 2004 Nebula Award for Best Novel.
In 2008, The New Moon's Arms won both the Aurora Award and the Sunburst Award. This made her the first author to win the Sunburst Award twice! This book was also nominated for the 2007 Nebula Award for Best Novel.
In 2016, Hopkinson received an honorary degree, a Doctor of Letters, from Anglia Ruskin University. In 2020, she was named the 37th Damon Knight Grand Master. This is a very high honor from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. In 2022, her story Broad Dutty Water: A Sunken Story won the Theodore Sturgeon Award.
Her Books and Stories
Nalo Hopkinson has written many different types of stories.
Novels
- Brown Girl in the Ring (1998)
- Midnight Robber (2000)
- The Salt Roads (2003)
- The New Moon's Arms (2007)
- The Chaos (2012) (This is a Young adult fiction book)
- Sister Mine (2013)
- Blackheart Man (2024)
Collections and Anthologies
- Whispers from the Cotton Tree Root: Caribbean Fabulist Fiction (2000, a collection of stories by different authors)
- Skin Folk (2001) (her own collection of short stories)
- Mojo: Conjure Stories (2003, a collection of stories by different authors)
- So Long Been Dreaming (2004, a collection of stories by different authors)
- Report From Planet Midnight (2012) (her short stories, plus an interview and a speech)
- Falling in Love With Hominids (2015) (her own collection of short stories)
Short Fiction (First Publications)
- "Slow Cold Chick" in the book Northern Frights 5 (1998)
- "A Habit of Waste" in the book Women of Other Worlds: Excursions through Science Fiction and Feminism (1999)
- "Precious" in the book Silver Birch, Blood Moon (1999)
- "The Glass Bottle Trick" in the book Whispers from the Cotton Tree Root: Caribbean Fabulist Fiction (2000)
- "Greedy Choke Puppy" and "Ganger (Ball Lightning)" in the book Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora
- "Midnight Robber" (an excerpt from her novel) reprinted in Young Bloods: Stories from Exile 1972–2001 (2001)
- "Delicious Monster" in the book Queer Fear II (2002)
- "Shift" in the journal Conjunctions: the New Wave Fabulists.
- "Herbal" in The Bakkanthology
- "Whose Upward Flight I Love" reprinted in African Voices
- "The Smile on the Face" in the book Girls Who Bite Back: Witches, Mutants, Slayers and Freaks (2004)
- "Snow Day" in New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby (2019).
Comic Book Series
- The Sandman Universe: House of Whispers (DC/Vertigo) (2018–2020)
