On that Rabid Puppies thing and my Hugo Award-winning novella Binti

I started writing science fiction because I wasn’t seeing stories featuring the Nigeria that I knew…to broaden it, the Africa I knew.
 My father was a heart surgeon and borderline atheist who grew up in a household where there was a shrine in the backyard dedicated to powerful Igbo deities. Complexities and an organic blending of the traditional with the futuristic are what I know. Binti is a product of all this and I’m utterly ecstatic that you all loved it enough to gift it with a Hugo. That’s so beautiful.

 I’d like to thank the Ancestors for pushing me to look to the sky and channel my anxious energy into a story.
 Thanks to the blue jellyfish in Sharjah’s Khalid Lagoon. A hearty thanks to the Himba people of Namibia whose strength and audacity continue to be an inspiration. Thanks to futuristic ancient lands of the United Arab Emirates, the inspiration for the setting and title of Binti.
 Thanks to my daughter Anya for telling me what she thought should happen next in the story. Thank you to my family for being my family. Thanks to my agent Don Maass for knowing the perfect place to send Binti and my editor Lee Harris for being there to receive and love it. And a grinning thank you to Binti’s readers for their openness, curiosity and loveof things.