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In the Studio: Nnedi Okorafor: Creating sci-fi worlds

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Nnedi Okorafor: Creating Sci Fi worlds

16/06/2020 GMT

Nnedi Okorafor: Creating sci-fi worlds

BBC World Service - In the Studio, Nnedi Okorafor: Creating sci-fi worlds

The award-winning writer Nnedi Okorafor on creating sci-fi and life in lockdown.

Award-winning science fiction author Nnedi Okorafor gives Mark Burman a glimpse into her fantasy worlds and her real life situation in lockdown America.

The award-winning science fiction author Nnedi Okorafor always has a project - or three - on the go. From her home outside Chicago she creates stories driven by what she describes as Africanfuturism and Africanjujuism for children and adults -a legacy of her Nigerian roots. Her work now ranges across comics for Marvel, screenplays and yet another new novel due out in the summer.  

But she wasn’t always destined to be a writer. She spent her youth training hard to be a top class athlete until she developed curvature of the spine, which put an end to her dreams. After corrective surgery she became temporarily paralysed and it was then, during her darkest time, that she began to create stories.  

Now, as Chicago, like the rest of the US endures lockdown, Nnedi’s been adapting to her changed life and restricted movements. Mark Burman talks to her about her work and how her creative process has been affected during the Covid-19 pandemic. During recordings made in April and early May he eavesdrops on some of her writing moments including her fruitful collaboration with the Kenyan director Wanuri Kahiu and their story of an A.I. traffic police robot – and hears about the therapeutic distraction of her trumpet-playing daughter and magnificent cat which now has his own Twitter account!

Reader: Keziah Joseph
Reporter: Mark Burman. 
Produced by Mark Burman and Emma Kingsley for the BBC World Service

Image: Nnedi Okorafor (Credit: Colleen Durkin)

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