By LaTASHA BOYD JONES
@tashaj@indyrecorder.com
New York Times bestselling author and MacArthur Fellow, N.K. Jemisin, is widely regarded as one of the most consequential contemporary speculative-fiction writers in the United States. Jemisin made a stop at Butler University on Sept. 24, 2026, as part of the Vivian Delbrook Visiting Writers Series, which brings prominent contemporary authors to campus.
Jemisin made history as the first author to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel for three consecutive years, for “The Fifth Season,” “The Obelisk Gate” and “The Stone Sky.”
For Indianapolis, bringing a writer of Jemisin’s stature into the city is significant because her work expands the possibilities of who gets to imagine, construct and write the future. Her fiction places questions of power, race, environment, displacement and belonging inside speculative worlds, giving readers another way to examine the systems shaping the world around them.
Award-winning author Maurice Broaddus said, “N.K. Jemisin is not only a thought leader but a literary revolution. She is an example of how the written word can impact culture and inspire people.”
That exchange was especially evident during her Butler appearance. Jemisin surveyed the audience about which of her titles they preferred, read from a new work, and answered student questions with remarkable detail. Rather than treating the question-and-answer as a formality, she offered extended responses. She shared her personal anecdotes that gave students insight into her creative process, writing and thinking.
Hannah Arnold, a freshman marketing major, from Ohio, found herself drawn to Jemisin’s short story, Emergency Skin. While introducing Jemisin, she said, “I was in awe of the choice to center AI’s voice and perspective to offer a broader message about the damages of accepting harmfulness as absolute truth, especially now.”
For students and emerging writers, access to an author who has achieved the highest levels of recognition in contemporary speculative fiction can make the literary world feel less distant. Broaddus added, “Any opportunity to celebrate her should be taken. Arnold said, “Jemisin challenges the reader to question what we were told and how our perception of the past can shape how we even imagine our world in the future.”
Jemisin’s presence demonstrates that the student’s thoughts and questions can become the foundation for ambitious work — and that they, too, can imagine worlds rather than simply inherit them.
Indianapolis got a treat.
Contact Health and Environmental Reporter LaTasha Boyd Jones at tashaj@indyrecorder.com or follow her on social media @iamtashajones
LaTASHA BOYD JONES
Tasha Jones is a poet, writer, researcher, and educator whose work explores language as a tool for liberation and resistance. She hosts In the Beginning: The Spoken Word Podcast, the #1 spoken word podcast on Apple and Spotify. Tasha is also the Poems & Parables Literary Journal editor and is currently writing Pyramids. Plantations. Projects. Penitentiaries. You can follow her on social media: @iamtashajones, @itbspokenwordpod, and @poemsandparables.
