Most Popular Books by Sofia Samatar

Time Magazine: 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time · World Fantasy, British Fantasy, & Crawford Award winner Jevick, the pepper merchant''s son, has been raised on stories of Olondria, a distant land where books are as common as they are rare in his home. When his father dies and Jevick takes his place on the yearly selling trip to Olondria, Jevick''s life is as close to perfect as he can imagine. But just as he revels in Olondria''s Rabelaisian Feast of Birds, he is pulled drastically off course and becomes haunted by the ghost of an illiterate young girl. In desperation, Jevick seeks the aid of Olondrian priests and quickly becomes a pawn in the struggle between the empire''s two most powerful cults. Yet even as the country shimmers on the cusp of war, he must face his ghost and learn her story before he has any chance of becoming free by setting her free: an ordeal that challenges his understanding of art and life, home and exile, and the limits of that seductive necromancy, reading. A Stranger in Olondria is a skillful and immersive debut fantasy novel that pulls the reader in deeper and deeper with twists and turns reminiscent of George R. R. Martin and Joe Hill.

Four women — a soldier, a scholar, a poet, and a socialite — are caught up on opposing sides of a violent rebellion. As war erupts and their loyalties and agendas and ideologies come into conflict, the four fear their lives may pass unrecorded. Using the sword and the pen, the body and the voice, they struggle not just to survive, but to make history. Here is the much-anticipated companion novel to Sofia Samatar’s World Fantasy Award-winning debut, A Stranger in Olondria. The Winged Histories is the saga of an empire — and a family: their friendships, their enduring love, their arcane and deadly secrets. Samatar asks who makes history, who endures it, and how the turbulence of historical change sweeps over every aspect of a life and over everyone, no matter whether or not they choose to seek it out. Sofia Samatar is the author of the Crawford, British Fantasy, and World Fantasy award-winning novel A Stranger in Olondria. She also received the John W. Campbell Award. She has written for the Guardian, Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, and many other publications. She is working on a collection of stories. Her website is sofiasamatar.com.

Winner of the Bernard J. Brommel Award for Biography & Memoir (Midland Authors Book Award) Finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award A historical tapestry of border-crossing travelers, of students, wanderers, martyrs and invaders, The White Mosque is a memoiristic, prismatic record of a journey through Uzbekistan and of the strange shifts, encounters, and accidents that combine to create an identity In the late nineteenth century, a group of German-speaking Mennonites traveled from Russia into Central Asia, where their charismatic leader predicted Christ would return. Over a century later, Sofia Samatar joins a tour following their path, fascinated not by the hardships of their journey, but by its aftermath: the establishment of a small Christian village in the Muslim Khanate of Khiva. Named Ak Metchet, “The White Mosque,” after the Mennonites’ whitewashed church, the village lasted for fifty years. In pursuit of this curious history, Samatar discovers a variety of characters whose lives intersect around the ancient Silk Road, from a fifteenth-century astronomer-king, to an intrepid Swiss woman traveler of the 1930s, to the first Uzbek photographer, and explores such topics as Central Asian cinema, Mennonite martyrs, and Samatar’s own complex upbringing as the daughter of a Swiss-Mennonite and a Somali-Muslim, raised as a Mennonite of color in America. A secular pilgrimage to a lost village and a near-forgotten history, The White Mosque traces the porous and ever-expanding borders of identity, asking: How do we enter the stories of others? And how, out of the tissue of life, with its weird incidents, buried archives, and startling connections, does a person construct a self?

"An uncanny and imaginative autobiography of otherness, it offers the fictional record of a writer in the realms of the fantastic shot through with the memories of a pair of Somali-American children growing up in the 1980s. Operating under the sign of two—texts and drawings, brother and sister, black and white, extraordinary and everyday —Monster Portraits multiplies, disintegrates, and blends, inviting the reader to find the danger in the banal, the beautiful in the grotesque. Accumulating into a breathless journey and groundbreaking study, these brief fictions and sketches claim the monster as a fragmentary vastness: not the sum but the derangement of its parts."--Amazon.com.

The first collection of short fiction from a rising star whose stories have been anthologized in the first two volumes of the Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy series and nominated for many awards. Some of Samatar’s weird and tender fabulations spring from her life and her literary studies; some spring from the world, some from the void. Praise for Sofia Samatar’s Books: “The excerpt from Sofia Samatar’s compelling novel A Stranger in Olondria should be enough to make you run out and buy the book. Just don’t overlook her short ‘Selkie Stories Are for Losers,’ the best story about loss and love and selkies I’ve read in years.” —K. Tempest Bradford, NPR “An imaginative, poetic, and dark meditation on how history gets made.” —Hello Beautiful “Pleasantly startling and unexpected. Her prose is by turns sharp and sumptuous, and always perfectly controlled. . . . There are strains here too of Jane Austen and something wilder.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Like an alchemist, Sofia Samatar spins golden landscapes and dazzling sentences.” —Shelf Awareness (starred review) “Beauty, wonder, and a soaring paean to the power of story.”—Jason Heller, NPR “Highly recommended.” —N. K. Jemisin, New York Times Book Review Sofia Samatar is the author of the novels A Stranger in Olondria and The Winged Histories. She has written for the Guardian, Strange Horizons, and Clarkesworld, among others, and has won the John W. Campbell Award, the Crawford Award, the British Fantasy Award, and the World Fantasy Award. She lives in Virginia.

Opacities is a book about writing, publishing, and friendship. Rooted in an epistolary relationship between Sofia Samatar and a friend and fellow writer, this collection of meditations traces Samatar''s attempt to rediscover the intimacy of writing In a series of compressed, dynamic prose pieces, Samatar blends letters from her friend with notes on literature, turning to Édouard Glissant to study the necessary opacity of identity, to Theresa Hak Kyung Cha for a model of literary kinship, and to a variety of others, including Clarice Lispector, Maurice Blanchot, and Rainer Maria Rilke, for insights on the experience and practice of writing. In so doing, Samatar addresses a number of questions about the writing life: Why does publishing feel like the opposite of writing? How can a black woman navigate interviews and writing conferences without being reduced to a symbol? Are writers located in their biographies or in their texts? And above all, how can the next book be written? Blurring the line between author and character and between correspondence and literary criticism, Opacities delivers a personal, contemplative exploration of writing where it lives, among impassioned conversations and the work of beloved writers.

Named a Best Sci-Fi Book of 2024 by Esquire A Most Anticipated in 2024 Pick for Goodreads | LitHub | Book Riot | She Reads | The Nerd Daily “I am in love with Sofia Samatar''s lyricism and the haunting beauty of her imagination. Her stories linger, like the memory of a sumptuous feast.”—N. K. Jemisin Celebrated author Sofia Samatar presents a mystical, revolutionary space adventure for the exhausted dreamer in this brilliant science fiction novella tackling the carceral state and violence embedded in the ivory tower while embodying the legacy of Ursula K. Le Guin. The boy was raised as one of the Chained, condemned to toil in the bowels of a mining ship out among the stars. His whole world changes—literally—when he is yanked “upstairs” and informed he has been given an opportunity to be educated at the ship’s university alongside the elite. Overwhelmed and alone, the boy forms a bond with the woman he comes to know as “the professor,” a weary idealist and descendent of the Chained who has spent her career striving for validation from her more senior colleagues, only to fall short at every turn. Together, the boy and the woman will embark on a transformative journey to grasp the design of the chains that fetter them both—and are the key to breaking free. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Tone is a collaborative study of literary tone, a notoriously challenging and slippery topic for criticism. Both granular and global, infusing a text with feeling, tone is so difficult to pin down that responses to it often take the vague form of “I know it when I see it.” In Tone, a cooperative authorial voice under the name of the Committee to Investigate Atmosphere begins from the premise that tone is relational, belonging to shared experience rather than a single author, and should be approached through a communal practice. In partnership, the Committee explores the atmospheres emanating from texts by Nella Larsen, W. G. Sebald, Heike Geissler, Hiroko Oyamada, Mieko Kanai, Bhanu Kapil, Franz Kafka, Renee Gladman, and others, attending to the chafing of political irritation, the hunger of precarious and temporary work, and the lonely delights of urban and suburban walks. This study treats a variety of questions: How is tone filtered through translation? Can a text hold the feelings that pass between humans and animals? What can attention to literary tone reveal about shared spaces such as factories, universities, and streets and the clashes and connections that happen there? Searching and conversational, Tone seeks immersion in literary affect to convey the experience of reading—and living—together.

The March/April 2015 issue of u003cemu003eUncanny Magazine.u003c/emu003eu003cbru003eu003cbru003e Featuring new fiction by Sofia Samatar, Rosamund Hodge, Kat Howard, Maria Dahvana Headley, Sarah Pinsker, Emily Devenport, and Fran Wilde, classic fiction by Ellen Klages, essays by Ytasha L. Womack, Amal El-Mohtar, L.M. Myles, and Stephanie Zvan, poetry by C.S.E. Cooney, Jennifer Crow, and M Sereno, interviews with Sofia Samatar, C.S.E. Cooney, and Ellen Klages, by Deborah Stanish, a cover by Carrie Ann Baade, and an editoral by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas.

A finales del siglo XIX, un grupo de menonitas germanoparlantes viajó desde Rusia hacia Asia Central, pues, según la predicción de su carismático líder, la segunda venida de Cristo iba a producirse allí. Más de un siglo después, Sofia Samatar se embarca en un viaje organizado que sigue sus pasos, fascinada no solo por las dificultades de la travesía, sino por su resultado: la creación de un pequeño pueblo cristiano en el kanato musulmán de Jiva. Bautizado como Ak Metchet, «la mezquita blanca», por la iglesia encalada de los menonitas, el pueblo sobrevivió cincuenta años. En busca de esta curiosa historia, Samatar descubre una serie de personajes cuyas vidas convergen en torno a la antigua Ruta de la Seda, desde un rey astrónomo del siglo XV hasta una intrépida viajera suiza de la década de 1930 o el primer fotógrafo uzbeko, y explora temas como el cine de Asia Central, los mártires menonitas y el complejo trasfondo de la propia Samatar como hija de una menonita suiza y un musulmán somalí, criada como una menonita de piel oscura en Estados Unidos. Una peregrinación laica a un pueblo perdido y a una historia casi olvidada, La mezquita blanca traza las fronteras de la identidad, porosas y siempre en expansión.

Een poëtisch memoir over mixed identity In De gouden weg naar Samarkand onderneemt Sofia Samatar een reis in de voetsporen van een groep Mennonieten – haar voorouders – die uit het toenmalige Rusland richting Samarkand moesten vluchten. Met De gouden weg naar Samarkand beschrijft Samatar op poëtische wijze de pelgrimstocht naar een verloren dorp en een bijna vergeten geschiedenis, én de zoektocht naar zichzelf. Zo ontstaat er in dit prachtige memoir een veelzijdig beeld van de auteur, haar voorouders en het Midden-Aziatische decor.

Fils d’un riche marchand de poivre, Jevick a été bercé toute son enfance par les contes et légendes de la lointaine Olondre, une contrée merveilleuse où les livres sont aussi communs qu’ils sont rares sur son île. Et voilà qu’à la mort de son père, afin de perpétuer le commerce familial, il doit se rend en Olondre. Malheureusement, le rêve tourne au cauchemar lorsqu’au lendemain du Festival des Oiseaux, il se découvre hanté par le fantôme d’une jeune femme. Suspecté d’un crime religieux, puis enfermé, Jevick devient rapidement un pion dans la lutte impitoyable qui se joue entre les deux principales religions olondriennes. Dans un pays au bord de la guerre civile, s’il veut un jour retrouver sa liberté, Jevick devra affronter son fantôme, traverser les limites du monde et dépasser les frontières de ses connaissances... Sofia Samatar est une autrice américano-somalienne née en 1971. Son premier roman, Un Étranger en Olondre, a été récompensé par les plus prestigieux prix anglo-saxons (World Fantasy Award, British Fantasy Award) et figure dans la liste des cent meilleurs romans de fantasy à lire selon le très réputé journal The Time. Mais surtout, il est une formidable ode à la plus séduisante des magies : celle des livres.

The White Review is an arts and literature quarterly magazine, with triannual print and monthly online editions. The magazine launched in London in February 2011 to provide ''a space for a new generation to express itself unconstrained by form, subject or genre'', and publishes fiction, essays, interviews with writers and artists, poetry, and series of artworks. It takes its name and a degree of inspiration from La Revue Blanche, a Parisian magazine which ran from 1889 to 1903.

anthology of fine art images from Laura Christensen, and fiction and poetry from numerous authors

Through the work of twenty-six writers, emerging to award-winning, The Humanity of Monsters plumbs the depths of humane monsters, monstrous humans, and the interstices between. In stories by turns surreal, sublime, brutal, and haunting, there are no easy answers to be found. Featuring Nathan Ballingrud, Laird Barron, Polenth Blake, Leah Bobet, Indrapramit Das, Berit Ellingsen, Gemma Files, Neil Gaiman, Maria Dahvana Headley, Kij Johnson, Joe R. Lansdale, Yoon Ha Lee, Rose Lemberg, Livia Llewellyn, Alex Dally MacFarlane, Meghan McCarron, Sunny Moraine, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Chinelo Onwualu, Sofia Samatar, Rachel Swirsky, Sonya Taaffe, Catherynne M. Valente, Kaaron Warren, Peter Watts, and A.C. Wise.

anthology of fine art images from Laura Christensen, and fiction and poetry from numerous authors -- compared to the larger THEN AGAIN featuring over thirty authors, THEN AGAIN Remix is a smaller edition containing works by ten authors.

Le collectif Angle Mort est composé d’éditeurs, d’écrivains, de traducteurs et de scientifiques partageant une même conception de la science-fiction ; celle d’une méthode d’exploration de soi et de notre environnement. La revue numérique Angle Mort publie des nouvelles contemporaines, françaises ou traduites de l’anglais, qui font la science-fiction d’aujourd’hui et offrent un nouveau regard sur le monde afin de mieux préparer demain. Pour ce numéro 11, retrouvez une couverture originale du street artist espagnol Deih, 4 récits de science-fiction inédits écrits par des auteurs français et américains, ainsi que les interviews avec tous les contributeurs.

LIGHTSPEED was founded on the core idea that all science fiction is real science fiction. The whole point of this magazine is that science fiction is vast. It is inclusive. Science fiction is about people and for people-all kinds of people, no matter where they''re from or what they look like.The People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction! special issue exists to relieve a brokenness in the genre that''s been enabled time and time again by favoring certain voices and portrayals of particular characters. Here we bring together a team of POC writers and editors from around the globe to present science fiction that explores the nuances of culture, race, and history. This is science fiction for our present time, but also-most of all-for our future.People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction! is 100% written and edited by people of color, and is lead by guest editors Nalo Hopkinson and Kristine Ong Muslim, with editorial contributions from Nisi Shawl, Grace L. Dillon, Berit Ellingsen, Arley Sorg, and Sunil Patel. It features ten original, never-before-published short stories, plus ten original flash fiction stories, by writers such as Steven Barnes, Karin Lowachee, Sofia Samatar, Terence Taylor, Caroline M. Yoachim, and more. All that, plus five classic reprints, by the likes of Samuel R. Delany and Octavia E. Butler; an array of nonfiction articles, interviews, and book reviews; and more than two dozen personal essays from people of colo(u)r discussing their experiences as readers and writers of science fiction.Enjoy the destruction!

LIGHTSPEED MAGAZINE was founded on the core idea that all science fiction is real science fiction, and that all fantasy is real fantasy. The whole point of this magazine is that science fiction and fantasy is vast. It is inclusive. It is about all people and for all people.Funded as a stretch goal of LIGHTSPEED''s People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction! Kickstarter campaign, we''re happy to present a special one-off issue of our otherwise discontinued sister-magazine, FANTASY (which was merged into LIGHTSPEED in 2012), called People of Colo(u)r Destroy Fantasy!: an all-fantasy extravaganza entirely written-and edited!-by POC creators.The People of Colo(u)r Destroy Fantasy! special issue exists to relieve a brokenness in the genre that''s been enabled time and time again by favoring certain voices and portrayals of particular characters. Here we bring together a team of POC writers and editors from around the globe to present fantasy that explores the nuances of culture, race, and history. This is fantasy for our present time, but also-most of all-for our future.People of Colo(u)r Destroy Fantasy! is 100% written and edited by people of color, and is lead by guest editor Daniel Jos� Older, with editorial contributions from Amal El-Mohtar, Tobias S. Buckell, Arley Sorg, and others. It features four original, never-before-published short stories, from N.K. Jemisin, P. Dj�l� Clark, Darcie Little Badger, and Thoraiya Dyer. Plus, there''s four classic reprints by Shweta Narayan, Leanne Simpson, Celeste Rita Baker, and Sofia Samatar. On top of all that, we also have an array of nonfiction articles and interviews, from Justina Ireland, Ibi Zoboi, Erin Roberts, Karen Lord, John Chu, Chinelo Onwualu, and Brandon O''Brien, as well as original illustrations by Reimena Yee, Emily Osborne, and Ana Bracic. Enjoy the destruction!

In the pages of Lightspeed Magazine, you will find the finest science fiction: from near-future, sociological soft SF, to far-future, star-spanning hard SF-and fantasy: from epic fantasy, sword-and-sorcery, and contemporary urban tales, to magical realism, science-fantasy, and folktales.Issue #1 was launched in June 2010, and now eight years later, we''ve reached a milestone: Issue 100. To celebrate, we decided to publish a super-sized issue, with ten original stories-more than twice the amount of original fiction than usual-plus ten reprints and some special nonfiction to boot. And to make things even more commemorative, the vast majority of our fiction in this issue, both original and reprint, comes from our most frequently published fiction contributors-the Lightspeediest writers to ever Lightspeed. It''s a distillation of what we''re made of, and we''re beyond excited to share it with all of you.Featuring work by Vylar Kaftan, Carrie Vaughn, Adam-Troy Castro, A. Merc Rustad, Ken Liu, Sofia Samatar, Charles Yu, Caroline M. Yoachim, An Owomoyela, Seanan McGuire, David Barr Kirtley, Genevieve Valentine, Cadwell Turnbull, Yoon Ha Lee, Maria Dahvana Headley, Sam J. Miller, Kat Howard, Theodora Goss, Charlie Jane Anders, Jeremiah Tolbert, and more.

An anthology of 23 weird and haunting short stories on the borderlands of horror.