Nnedi Okorafor Pens Two More Binti Tales by Lee Harris

By now you’ll have probably heard that Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti has been shortlisted for a Hugo Award for Best Novella. Way before we heard this news, we asked Nnedi if she’d like to write more in this world.

Happily, she said yes. In fact, she said she’d already written one.

Okorafor shares how Binti: Home came about:

So, I wasn’t done with Binti’s story. There was more. There has always been more. When I wrote Binti, her story and her world were so lush, clear, detailed and huge, that I felt intimidated. Plus, I’d never written anything that took place in outer space. I had to ease into it like a hot bath, slowly.

Back in August (2015), as soon as I returned to Buffalo for the beginning of the semester at the University at Buffalo, I knew I would start writing more of Binti’s story. And I knew that though I’d just left home (Chicago), I’d write about Binti returning home (to her family). I didn’t tell anyone what I was writing. The story came in a steady rush. I worked on it in my Chicago and Buffalo condos, in many airports, on cross-continental flights, in South Africa, Nigeria, Italy, Los Angeles. I finished Binti: Home in my hotel room in Wellington, New Zealand, the night after I went on a nighttime nature hike where owls followed us in the trees and I saw wild kiwis walk out of the bushes. In all the movement and chaos that is my life, Binti‘s story (and Okwu’s) still came forth; it was that much fun to write.

When I did finally tell my agent and Tor.com what I was up to, both were pleased. I’m ecstatic to continue Binti’s story with Tor.com.

Binti: Home will be published in January 2017, with the as-yet-untitled third book to follow, later. Both books were acquired by senior editor Lee Harris from Donald Maass of the Donald Maass Literary Agency.