About Stephen
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This is where I write. This is where I keep writing.
For more information or pricing requests on art for sale: art [at] embleton [dot] co [dot] za
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).
Stephen was awarded a literary grant by the Royal Literary Fund in 2024, providing financial assistance to write while recognising the literary merit of his body of work and literature-related activities.
Stephen Embleton was born in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and is a resident in Oxford, after his 2022 academic fellowship at the African Studies Centre, University of Oxford. His background is Graphic Design, Creative Direction and Film.
His first short story was published in 2015 in the "Imagine Africa 500" speculative fiction anthology, followed by more in the “Beneath This Skin” 2016 Edition of Aké Review, “The Short Story is Dead, Long Live the Short Story! Vol.2”, the debut edition of Enkare Review 2017, The Bloody Parchment, AfroSFv3, The Kalahari Review, Burning House Press, Omenana Magazine, and The Shallow Tales Review. He was featured in Part 11 of the 100 African Writers of SFF on Strange Horizons.
His debut speculative fiction novel, Soul Searching, was published in the UK and US in August/September 2020. He is a charter member of the African Speculative Fiction Society and its Nommo Awards initiative.
His unpublished YA fantasy novel, Bones & Runes, was a top 5 finalist in the 2021 inaugural James Currey Prize for African Literature, and was published in the UK in February 2022. Awarded the James Currey Fellowship at African Studies Centre, Oxford University 2022. His essay "There is Magic in African Literature" (and cover feature) was published in the University of Oxford, African Studies Centre 2022 Newsletter. Stephen is the editor of The James Currey Anthology 2022, featuring short fiction and non-fiction with contributors hailing from Botswana to Nigeria, Ghana to South Africa – writing from the Continent or in the diaspora. Stephen is the editor of the 2023 edition of the posthumously published final novel of Flora Nwapa, The Lake Goddess.
Stephen is one of the ten African writers making up the Sauúti Collective, a group of African writers who created the Sauútiverse shared-world fantasy and speculative fiction universe for a short story anthology and beyond. He was on the Sauúti Collective panel at the Aké Arts & Book Festival 2022 in Lagos, Nigeria.
Stephen’s academic essay, "Cosmologies and Languages Building Africanfuturism", appears in the Bloomsbury essay collection 'Afro-Centered Futurisms in Our Speculative Fiction'.
Interviews:
#JayLitInterviewSeries with Stephen Embleton – Journal of African Youth Literature, 14 Nov 2024 (Ibrahim Babátúndé Ibrahim)
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!
"Speculative Fiction and the Magic of African Literature: A Conversation with Stephen Embleton" – The Shallow Tales Review #40, 31 January 2023 (Nzube Nlebedim)
TEN QUESTIONS With Stephen Embleton – Published in Aké Review Volume 9, 2022
Nerine Dorman In Conversation with Stephen Embleton – Video Interview with Nerine Dorman – 1 March 2022
"Clarity and Duality In The Fantastical Realm: A Dialogue With Stephen Embleton" – Africa In Dialogue, September 6, 2021 (Davina Philomena Kawuma)
"100 African Writers of SFF – Part Eleven: Durban and East London" – Strange Horizons, 6 September 2018 (Geoff Ryman)
