Stephen Embleton

  UPDATE: Cover Reveal April 2024 Great to part of this! Thanks, to Eugen Bacon, who initiated this over a year ago: Bloomsbury Academic will be publishing this essay anthology covering a HUGE range of topics and insights within Afro-Centred Futurisms, including my essay “Cosmologies and Languages Building Africanfuturism”. Afro-Centered Futurisms in Our Speculative Fiction is an accessible work of criticism that will appeal to scholarly readers and broader enthusiasts of Afrocentric and speculative literature.  British Fantasy Award winner Eugen Bacon (ed.)'s AFRO-CENTERED FUTURISMS IN OUR SPECULATIVE FICTION, an anthology of original artistic essays infused with creative excerpts from award-winning African writers on the futurisms in their speculative fiction; a new kind of African study in an evaluative gaze at African history, African spirituality, Afrosurrealism, 'becoming', black radical imagination, cultural identity, decolonizing queerness, myths, linguistic cosmolo

Sauúti is an all-round creative collective, encouraging any manner of creative expression to represent this shared-world we have created. Check out more on the released  Mothersound: The Sauúti Anthology here. It was great to be able to write as well as create art (including the co-created anthology cover design) for mine and others' stories in the final "Mothersound: The Sauúti Anthology" . And the perfect opportunity for me to play with varying styles and techniques. Impudu-pudu (lightning bird) The Impudu-pudu lightning bird Eugen Bacon created an awesome giant lightning bird called the impudu-pudu. At the time, I was playing with my physical rolled ink work (scanned from 2019) and using them digitally. This was the perfect style to try something textural and visceral for this sequence of Eugen's story  “Sina, The Child With No Echo”. Here is the layered illustration. Layered elements for the Impudu-pudu bird – rolled ink The Way of Baa’gh The crab-like creatures

The day finally came! Mothersound: The Sauútiverse Anthology released on 21 November 2023. The entire Sauúti Collective are overjoyed and relieved and excited to have this out in the world and available in both print and ebook in the US and UK, through Android Press and Luna Press respectively. AUDIO BOOK COMING SOON. I had the privilege of creating 5 art pieces for various stories (including my own: Undulation ), and assisting Akintoba Kalejaye with the cover design and title design: Purchase copies of Mothersound: The Sauútiverse Anthology here: Amazon – paperback and ebook/Kindle Amazon UK – paperback and ebook Barnes & Noble – paperback View and Review on Goodreads Check out some of the blurbs so far: The starred review on Publisher's Weekly : "This shared-world anthology from (Wole) Talabi stands out for both its cross-genre reach and the immense scope of its ambitions. ...this feels like the start of something monumental." “𝙈𝙊𝙏𝙃𝙀𝙍𝙎𝙊𝙐𝙉𝘿: 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙖

It was such a great venue at the British Library and an eager Africa Writes audience listening to Cheryl Ntumy, Wole Talabi, Jude Umeh and myself talk about the The Sauúti Collective and our awesome project on 1 October 2023. Jude Umeh and I Great questions at the end (cutting many short as we were over time) ⏱️ And then some speaking to us afterwards — showing we have a good thing for everyone to join in on!  A great Q&A We spoke about The Sauúti Collective 's nearly two-year journey beginning with Brittle Paper and Syllble to the Mothersound anthology ( Android Press ) coming soon and our project which is beyond what we imagined with people eager to read AND participate in its future.  🪐✨🚀 Myself, Desta Haile, Jude Umeh and Nwora Emenike My books! Wole's book! My book! Desta Haile introducing Jude and I on stage and getting ready And we're off... Fun after The fantastic photography socials team! Signing Bones & Runes is always special Good chats, good food! J

Front Cover Design   I was asked by fellow Sauúti collaborator, Eugen Bacon, to design the cover for the third volume of the British Science Fiction Association's (BSFA) Fission anthology. We both wanted to infuse it with our own African influences, and with my ongoing research on various African writing systems , I played with the forms from Nsibidi. The fact that Eugen and co-editor, Gene Rowe ( who have put together a stellar volume of stories! ) were willing to venture into a more graphic cover design idea is a testament to this entire anthology. Fission #3 is available here. Full Cover Spread Find out more about this volume and the contributing authors.