Nnedi Okorafor’s Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Binti trilogy has been published by The Folio Society in a lavish illustrated edition. What a landmark moment for African speculative fiction!

Released on October 21, 2025, this marks the first time the prestigious British publisher has produced an illustrated edition of an Africanfuturist work. Thereby, placing Okorafor’s groundbreaking space opera alongside the literary classics in the Folio Society’s esteemed catalog.

Folio Society Editor Sophia Schoepfer emphasized the significance of the project: “With its fierce and imaginative blend of sci-fi and Africanfuturism—a term coined by Nnedi Okorafor herself, which aims to centre African culture and perspectives—the multi-award-winning Binti trilogy is unique from any of the science fiction books that Folio Society has published in the past.”

The 360-page omnibus collects all three novellas, Binti, Home, and The Night Masquerade, along with the short story “Binti: Sacred Fire,” featuring seven full-page color illustrations and additional black-and-white artwork by renowned artist David Palumbo. Palumbo originally painted the covers for the trilogy’s first publication by Tor publishing group over a decade ago, with the first cover remaining one of his personal favorites. For this Folio Society edition, he returned to Okorafor’s cosmic world, rendering illustrations in rich blues, purples, and reds that bring to life Binti herself, the jellyfish-like Meduse, and the living starship Third Fish against shimmering nebulas and galaxies.

For those unfamiliar with the trilogy, it follows Binti Ekeopara Zuzu Dambu Kaipka of Namib, a young Himba woman who becomes the first of her people to attend the prestigious intergalactic university Oomza Uni. Her journey of mathematics, diplomacy, and survival after a deadly attack by the Meduse explores identity, cultural heritage, and transformation across the stars. The story blends hard science fiction with African cultural specificity. Binti’s otjize (a clay mixture from her homeland) and her ancestral knowledge become crucial to brokering peace between warring species.

This Folio Society edition represents more than beautiful bookmaking, it’s a statement about which stories belong in the literary canon. When a publisher known for producing collectible editions of Dickens, Austen, and Shakespeare chooses to give an Africanfuturist trilogy the deluxe treatment, it acknowledges that African speculative fiction has arrived as enduring literature worthy of preservation and celebration. The edition retails for $120/£85 and is available exclusively at foliosociety.com. With a Hulu adaptation also in development, Binti’s journey from Namib to the stars continues to expand, carrying Okorafor’s vision of African futures to audiences across the world.

We are so proud of Nnedi Okorafor, and all her accomplishments (including this feat) that continue to attract the globe to the African literary space.