Suyi Davies Okungbowa is a Nigerian author of fantasy, science fiction, and general speculative work. Follow her on Twitter at and on Instagram at. When she’s not reading, you can catch her bullet journalling and baking. She is a graduate of the University of Texas with degrees in Plan II Honors, Neurolinguistics, and English, as well as Chemistry and Pre-Medical studies. A British private school survivor turned Nigerian-American immigrant, Ehigbor hopes to do justice to the myths and traditions she grew up steeped in, and to honor her large, multiracial and multiethnic family. Her debut adult fantasy novel, FORGED BY BLOOD, is forthcoming from Harper Voyager in August 2023. See more of her work at or catch her on twitter ESCAPING EXODUSĮhigbor Okosun is an Austin-based author who writes speculative fiction for adult and young-adult audiences. Her award-winning novel THE PREY OF GODS is set in a futuristic South Africa brimming with demigods, robots, and hallucinogenic hijinks, and with her latest series ESCAPING EXODUS and its sequel ESCAPING EXODUS: SYMBIOSIS, she takes her weirdness off-world to a civilization living inside the gut of a moon-sized space beast. She resides in Austin, Texas where being weird is highly encouraged, if not required. Nicky Drayden is a Systems Analyst who dabbles in prose when she’s not buried in code.

Whether creating imagined futures or alternate universes, speculative fiction writers must be able to immerse readers into their new worlds on the page. The panelists will discuss how they build their own speculative worlds in their novels, and how they weave worldbuilding into every aspect of the story, from setting to plot to character arcs, from science to magic systems.

Worldbuilding is a key part of creating fictional narratives, and it is a core element of storytelling found in the speculative fiction genre. Evans as she moderates a conversation on the power of the Black fantastic with speculative fiction writers Nicky Drayden, Ehigbor Okosun, and Suyi Davies Okungbowa. This Black History Month, join the Southern Studies Fellowship in Arts and Letters Writer-in Residence Desiree S.

Escaping exodus symbiosis