N K Jemisin Quotes

A fantasy novel set in something other than medieval Europe, featuring an almost entirely black cast, is considered risky.
Actual Victorian mores and politics were a reaction to a specific series of historical events, technological and scientific developments, and ethical trends in which the commodification of people was de rigueur.
All people who grew up with science fiction and fantasy and horror went through the whole acculturation process of the genre. We were all told to read the golden age writers. We were all told Heinlein and Asimov and all these straight, white males, although some of them were Jewish.
Any writer kind of who knows what they're doing goes forth and grabs a copy of an issue of something that they want to be published in, or they skim it online. They read what that market has been doing. They see a particular flavor of fiction.
As a black woman, I have no particular interest in maintaining the status quo. Why would I? The status quo is harmful; the status quo is significantly racist and sexist and a whole bunch of other things that I think need to change.
Fantasy is fantasy. It's fiction. It's not meant to be a textbook. I don't believe in letting research overwhelm the fiction. That's a danger of science fiction in particular, as opposed to fantasy. A lot of writers forget that what they're doing is supposed to be art.
I am a linear thinker in a lot of ways.
I don't really understand why so many fantasy writers choose to focus on worlds that just seem strangely denuded. But to them, I guess it doesn't seem strange. And I guess that's their privilege. It isn't mine.
I read a lot of history for fun.
I tend to like writing characters that are not typical heroes.
I tend to write society as I see and understand it.
I think most fiction focuses on uncomfortable settings because that's interesting.
I think the people who believe that works can and always should be divorced from the context are people who have the privilege to do so.
I was raised to be very wary of the police. I was raised to stay away from them unless you absolutely have to. Because they're dangerous.
I would love to just write and not have everything I say or do turn into a political battle.
I write for myself - but it is nice when other people like it, too!
I write what feels real. I write things that are informed both by my own experience and by actual history.
If you can imagine something, it will be.
In the 'Dreamblood' books, I'm focusing more on what I like about epic fantasy: the layering and depth of tension; the chance to really delve into the minutia of an alternate society and its politics; a large cast of characters to love and hate.
It takes practice to do anything unique within this field, period, in writing, practice doing anything unique in writing.
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N. K. Jemisin
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BirthDate
19 September, 1972
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