Nigerian-American author and former civil rights lawyer Tochi Onyebuchi is set to publish a memoir about being labeled a “race writer”. Aptly titled Is This a Race Book?, the book will be released by Roxane Gay Books in the coming year.

Onyebuchi is known for incorporating civil rights and Afrofuturism into his stories and novels. But in this memoir, he decides to pen a collection of essays interrogating the burden of being labeled a “race writer” in the Internet age.

According to Publisher’s Marketplace, these essays include reflections on how the Internet has shaped collective identities, the limitations of our virtual world in pursuing justice and freedom, the sanctuary of online gaming, and the folly of so-called “Internet novels”.

We are thrilled that Onyebuchi is writing back against the labels that literary critics and readers have placed on him. His memoir is bound to be an insightful read and we hope that these essays deepen the conversation on what it means to write about race through different genres for African writers today.

Tochi Onyebuchi is a Nigerian-American science fiction and fantasy writer and former civil rights lawyer. He graduated with a political science degree from Yale University, earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in screenwriting from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Onyebuchi also received a master’s degree in Global Economic Law from Instituts d’études politiques in France and attended Columbia Law School, receiving a Juris Doctor degree.

His novella, Riot Baby, received an Alex Award from the American Library Association and the World Fantasy Award in 2021 as well as the Ignyte Award for best novella. Riot Baby was also a finalist for the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Novella and the NAACP Image Award. His other books include Goliath, (S)kinfolk, Beasts Made of Night, War Girls, and more.

Congrats to Onyebuchi on the upcoming memoir!