Nnedi Okorafor is coming to Wisconsin!

Award-winning Nigerian-American author Nnedi Okorafor is set to make literary history in Wisconsin as her latest novel, Death of the Author, becomes the centerpiece of the 2025-2026 Great World Texts in Wisconsin program. This ambitious statewide initiative will see high school teachers and students throughout Wisconsin engage with Okorafor’s masterpiece of metafiction, described as “surprisingly funny, deeply poignant, and endlessly discussable.”

The selection represents a groundbreaking moment for African speculative fiction in American education, bringing one of the genre’s most innovative voices to classrooms across an entire state. Death of the Author follows Zelu, a disabled Nigerian writer who, after being fired and rejected by publishers, writes Rusted Robots, a futuristic novel about androids and AI that transforms her career and explores how storytelling shapes reality.

A comprehensive curriculum guide, written by Theo Okunlola with support from faculty advisor Ainehi Edoro, offers contextual materials, suggested readings, close reading activities, discussion prompts, handouts, and student project ideas. The guide is specifically designed to make the text accessible across different grade levels and customizable for various classroom needs.

Participating teachers will receive classroom sets of the novel for their schools’ permanent collections. The program also features a virtual educator colloquium in August 2025, offering faculty lectures, conference guidelines, and community-building exercises among participating educators statewide.

The program culminates in a full-day student conference on Tuesday, April 7, 2026, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where students from across Wisconsin will present projects created in response to the novel, engage with peers from different regions, and meet Nnedi Okorafor in person. This direct interaction between students and the author promises to create lasting connections between young readers and contemporary African literature.

The day concludes with a special public event: Humanities Without Boundaries featuring Nnedi Okorafor on Tuesday, April 7, 2026, from 7:00 to 8:30 PM at Madison Central Public Library. Moderated by Ainehi Edoro, Brittle Paper Editor and Vilas Early Career and Constellations Mellon-Morgridge Professor in UW-Madison’s English Department, this free conversation will explore Okorafor’s recent and upcoming works alongside her writing process. The event, presented in partnership with Wisconsin Book Festival, will feature book sales by A Room of One’s Own bookstore and signing opportunities.

We will keep sharing updates between now and April, but in the interim, more information can be accessed here.