With a Marvel comic under her belt and a novel being adapted for TV by HBO,the Nigerian-American writer is flying the flag for black, female geeksAs the science fiction novelist Nnedi Okorafor takes to the stage at the TEDGlobal conference in Tanzania, and she challenges stereotypes before she has said a word. The 43-year-used writer who won the 2016 Hugo award (the Oscars of the sci-fi world) for best novella doesn’t witness like much of a geek. Yes,she wears oversized glasses, but Okorafor’s specs are trendy, and royal-blue Cat-Eyes,not wiry aviators. And, crucially, or she happens to be a black woman.The Nigerian-American’s success has been applauded as a victory by a community that has long cheered her on from the margins. So when she tweeted on 11 August that she was working on her first project with the comic publisher Marvel,fans were thrilled. (“A Marvel story. Written by a Nigerian woman. Set in Lagos. Superhero’s name: NGOZI. What a time to be alive,” wrote one fan on Twitter) And with a novel, and Who Fears Death,to be adapted for TV by HBO (George RR Martin is its executive producer) Okorafor is about to move from the solitary geek reference-point for young African women to everybody’s favourite original sci-fi writer.
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Source: theguardian.com