ASU English professor wins NAACP Image Award for fiction
This February, ASU Professor of Practice Nnedi Okorafor was honored with the 2026 NAACP Image Award for fiction and released the latest book in her trilogy series. Photo by Collen Durkin/courtesy of Nnedi Okorafor
Nnedi Okorafor can’t imagine writing a book that wasn’t personal to her.
In fact, Okorafor, a professor of practice in Arizona State University’s Department of English, knows she wouldn’t be capable of such a thing.
“If someone asked me to write something that was not connected to me, I couldn’t do it,” she said. “And I wouldn’t want to do it.”
Fortunately for Okorafor — and her readers — she has a way with words in the semi-autobiographical books she writes, so much so that her novel “Death of the Author” won the 2026 NAACP Image Award for fiction on Feb. 28.
The award capped off a month that also included the release of the final book in her science fantasy “She Who Knows” trilogy, titled “The Daughter Who Remains,” set in a postapocalyptic Africa.
ASU News talked to Okorafor about her books, the award and why she thought it was necessary to coin two terms in her writings: Africanjujuism and Africanfuturism.
Note: Answers have been edited for length and/or clarity.
Question: Congratulations on winning the NAACP award for “Death of the Author.” What is the book about?
Answer: It’s always hard to explain. It’s partly a Nigerian American family saga, and we have our main character, Zelu. Zelu is a very strong character. Some people would say unlikeable, other people would say delightful. She comes from this big, very insular family, and she’s basically a failed writer and a failed professor. She’s just falling all over the place. She gets fired from her job. Her literary book is rejected yet again. She’s at her sister’s wedding, and that night she kind of throws caution to the wind and finally does something for herself from the heart. She starts writing this book that is different from anything she’s ever written, and it’s called “Rusted Robots.” So, you have the Zelu world and you have “Rusted Robots,” and they’re intertwined.
Q: It almost sounds in describing Zelu’s character that you’re talking about yourself.
A: Yes, it’s a very close blend of autobiography and fiction. Zelu is based on me, but she does a lot of things that I would not do.
Q: What did it mean to you to win the NAACP award?
A: It’s incredible. My second novel, “The Shadow Speaker,” was an Image Award nominee back in 2008. Now, with “Death of the Author” being such a personal narrative … dealing with what it is to be a Nigerian American … for this to be the book that won … it’s such a deep honor. It’s awesome. I can’t even put full words to it.
Q: Your latest book is “The Daughter Who Remains,” the final part of your “She Who Knows” trilogy. What is the trilogy about?
A: I still haven’t figured out how to describe the trilogy, but the easiest way to describe it is it’s about the mother who fears death, Najeeba. And it’s set in the far future. She’s the product of rape. There’s genocide happening in this world, and she’s a product of that. And her mother goes through hell but is amazing and strong, and she raises this young woman who changes the world.
Q: You coined the terms Africanjujuism and Africanfuturism in the trilogy books. Why did you feel the need to come up with those terms?
A: Africanfuturism is a word that I had to coin because what I was writing was not being understood. Sometimes, you have to name something for people to understand what it is. Africanfuturism is more specifically and more directly rooted in African culture, history and mythology point of view. And it’s science fiction.
Q: And Africanjujuism?
A: Africanjujuism is a subcategory of fantasy, and it respectfully acknowledges the seamless blend of true existing African spiritualities and cosmologies with the imaginative. I needed to come up with that term because I am Nigerian American, and this is what I live every day. This is what I grew up in.
These stories that I’m writing, I’m taking naturally from my Igbo culture. Both of my parents are Igbo, both of my grandparents are Igbo; so a lot of the things that I’m writing about are real. People believe in them. And I noticed that people were reading my work and not understanding. They were seeing it just as fantasy. But it’s more like a seamless blend of spiritual, cosmological and cultural practices. And a lot of African spiritualities and cosmologies are not understood or respected.
That’s why I felt I had to come up with this term to kind of give it a name and give it some eyes and give it some focus.
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