Orbit Books has acquired three new novels from N. K. Jemisin, the Hugo Award-winning author of The Fifth Season (for which she won Best Novel, the first black writer to do so) and The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, among others. The first of these books will be a contemporary fantasy, which marks Jemisin’s first time writing in our world, exploring themes of race and power in New York City. This as-yet untitled novel has a projected publication date of April 2019.
“N. K. Jemisin is one of the most creative, incisive, and important writers working in fantasy today, and her recent Hugo win only underlines that fact,” acquiring editor Brit Hvide said in a press release. “We at Orbit are proud to continue publishing Jemisin’s work and to amplify her remarkable voice.”
“I’ve been very happy with Orbit and am thrilled that they’re giving me more chances to explore my creative visions,” Jemisin said. “This is an idea that I’ve been thinking about for a long time and I’m glad to finally be able to put it to the page.”
Other creative visions of Jemisin’s that you can read now include “The Evaluators,” her contribution to WIRED’s inaugural Fiction Issue. Her Mass Effect novel Mass Effect: Initiation will also be published in fall 2017.
First time she’s writing a novel set in contemporary times. She’s done quite a few contemporary short stories :-)
Jemisin has said on her Patreon that “The City Born Great” here on tor.com was the “proof of concept” story for this contemporary fantasy novel. (Just like “The Stone Hunger” on Clarkesworld was a “proof of concept” for The Broken Earth.)