Award winning writer, editor & publisher.
Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki pronounced (UH-ge-ne-chah-we Donald AY-PAY-kee).
Short bio
Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki is the Most awarded African born SFF writer, editor and publisher. His works have been translated to multiple languages, & he’s been a guest of honour & sponsored/invited to conventions, conferences and events in Europe, Asia and North America. He’s listed in the National Museum of African American History and Culture at the Smithsonian, for His Contributions to Afrofuturism and Black Literature
Long bio:
Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki is the most awarded African born SFF writer, editor and publisher. He’s written, edited and published the most awarded African science fiction/fantasy works, authors and scholars in the last hundred years of the genre’s existence. His works have won and been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, Otherwise, Nommo, Sturgeon, Locus, British Science Fiction, British Fantasy, World Fantasy and NAACP Image awards, amongst others.
Most of his wins and nominations have been racial or continental firsts. For example he’s the first Black person to win the Asimov’s readers award.
He’s the first and only African born, Black writer to have won the Nebula award, and the World Fantasy awards.
He’s one of only eight people to have won the World Fantasy award for best Anthology, more than once, and the only person in history to have won it twice, back to back.
He is the first African born writer to have won the Locus award, and been a finalist for the Hugo award. He’s the first Black person alongside Sheree Renee Thomas to have been nominated for the Hugo award best editor category, and the first person of colour, one of only four people overall to have been nominated for the Hugo award fiction and editing categories, in the same year.
He’s the first Black man, and the youngest person ever to be a guest of honour at the International Conference For the Fantastic In the Arts, following nobel prize winning guests like Isaac Bashevis Singer and Doris Lessing, and notable authors like Stephen King, Ursula K Le Guin, etc.
He was appointed to the executive board of the International Association For the Fantastic In the Arts as the only African to be. He still serves there as the Virtual Conference Coordinator.
He’s also the first and only African to have been elected to the executive board of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
He co-edited the anthology Africa Risen, published by Tor, Macmillan.
Besides this anthology, he founded The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction anthology series. He has edited and published hundreds of works in anthologies, collections and magazine issues, the most awarded SFF works, by Africans in the genre’s history. Works he has written, edited and published have been mentioned in The Guardian, Washington Post, NBC etc, made the Forbes Afrique Soft Power List, the Levar Burton Podcast, won/been nominated for the Caine Prize, NAACP Image award, the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, British Science Fiction award, World Fantasy award, British award, Otherwise, Sturgeon, Nommo, Ignyte, Sidewise, the This Is Horror awards, etc.
He co-organized the WorldCon Discon 3 African Stream which saw the largest number of Africans attend the WorldCon in it’s near century history.
He’s founded awards, like the Emeka Walter Dinjos Memorial Award For Disability In Speculative Fiction, the only Speculative Fiction award there in the genre, for disability. He’s judged other awards, like the Canopus award, an initiative of 100YSS by DARPA and NASA.
His works have been published in Asimov’s, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Uncanny Magazine, Strange Horizons, Galaxy’s Edge, etc. They have been translated to Chinese, Farsi, Italian, Czech, Dutch, Bengali and others.
He gave the keynote speech at the Center For African Literature and Cultures, Jadavpur University India, and he’s been a guest of honour and sponsored to countries like China, Italy, the UK, the US, Czech, Germany and others.
His created the genre label Afropantheology
And the larger Pantheology school of thought it’s under, in addition to Caribbean Pantheology, Indopantheology, and others.
He has been listed in the National Museum of African American History and Cultureat the Smithsonian, for his contributions to Afrofuturism and Black Literature. He is listed there alongside Octavia Butler, Samuel Delany, Colson Whitehead, and others
You can find out more about him on
National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian.
Science Fiction Awards Database
Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki 