A friend of Octavia’s during her Seattle years, Nisi Shawl is a founder of the diversity-in-speculative-fiction nonprofit The Carl Brandon Society. Honors received include the Locus, World Fantasy, Otherwise, and Kate Wilhelm Solstice awards. Shawl edited Bloodchildren: Stories by the Octavia E. Butler Scholars; they co-edited Strange Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism, African American Voices, and Octavia E. Butler. Their debut novel, Everfair, was a 2016 Nebula finalist. Fruiting Bodies, their latest short story collection, is forthcoming in October 2022. Shawl’s Middle Grade historical fantasy Speculation is due out in January 2023, to be followed soon after by New Suns 2, the sequel to their acclaimed anthology New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color. They like to relax by pretending they live in other people’s houses.
