The 2026 Locus Awards, which had Africans shortlisted in 6 categories, were announced on May 30 at a ceremony held in Berkeley, California, in partnership with the Bay Area Book Festival. It was a landmark night for Nigerian writers. Nnedi Okorafor walked away with two awards, for Best Science Fiction Novel and Best Illustrated and Art Book, while Somto Ihezue won Best Novelette. Three wins across three categories for writers from Nigeria, in one of the most democratic and reader-driven prizes in speculative fiction.

Okorafor’s Best Science Fiction Novel win went to Death of the Author (William Morrow; Gollancz), her most acclaimed work in years. The novel follows a disabled Nigerian-American writer whose science fiction story about a post-human Africa becomes a global phenomenon, raising urgent questions about AI authorship and whether a system trained on human stories can be considered a genuine creative author. The book had already accumulated extraordinary recognition before the Locus ceremony: it won the 2026 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Fiction and was named one of TIME’s Must-Read Books of 2025. Okorafor was also a guest of honor at the ceremony itself, making her the rare author to both win and be feted at the same event.

Her second win, for Best Illustrated and Art Book, went to The Space Cat (First Second), illustrated by Tana Ford. The book centers on Periwinkle, Okorafor’s own Oriental shorthair cat, whose alter ego is Space Cat the Cat Explorer, a creature with a sharp voice and a strong philosophy about life, space, and family. When Okorafor takes Periwinkle along on a trip to Nigeria, the cat uses his considerable skills to protect the town of Kaleria against alien invaders. Reviews have been effusive: critics praised Ford’s bold lines and masterful use of color — warm tones for Nigeria, otherworldly blues and purples for Periwinkle’s space adventures — and the seamless synchrony between art and script, which makes the book feel like the work of a single writer-artist. Peter Ramsey, Academy Award–winning co-director of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, called it “a witty and imaginative journey that only a true pet owner could create.” The book is rated for readers from age 4 to adults, and it marks a continuation of Okorafor and Ford’s creative partnership, which has previously produced work for Marvel.

Somto Ihezue won Best Novelette for “We Begin Where Infinity Ends,” published in the February 2025 issue of Clarkesworld. Ihezue is a Nigerian writer, editor, and filmmaker, currently an MFA student at the University of Maryland, and a scholarship recipient from Clarion West, Tin House, Voodoonauts, and Milford SF workshops. His stories have appeared in Tor, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Uncanny, Strange Horizons, and others, and have been shortlisted for the British Fantasy and Nommo Awards. The Locus win is the most significant of his career to date and marks him as one of the most important emerging voices in African speculative fiction.

The Locus Awards are voted on entirely by the public; subscribers count double, but any reader may participate, which makes these wins a reflection not just of critical esteem but of genuine global readership.

Congratulations Nnedi Okorafor and Somto Ihezue!