Oghenechovwe Ekpeki has had his debut novel Birth of Orisha acquired by Shahid Mahmud, the publisher of Caezik Books, an imprint of Arc Manor, with Lezli Robyn editing.
Set in the far future where nuclear war has wiped out almost all life in Africa and the remnants of a once proud people must battle radiation, mutation, the environment, themselves, it blends spirituality with science fiction and takes on heavy moral questions. It is the first book in the trilogy titled The Orisha Cycle. It is a work of Afropantheology, a subgenre coined by Ekpeki and Joshua Uchenna Omenga as a literary and philosophical framework for African spirituality. It also falls within the sub genres of Afrofuturism, Africanfuturism, dystopia, and horror.
Mahmud and Robyn published Ekpeki’s novelette O2 Arena, which made him the only African-born writer to have won the Nebula Award, and his anthology The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction 2021, which made him the first African editor to win a World Fantasy Award. They also published his most recent anthology, The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction 2023, co-edited by Chinaza Eziaghighala, which is currently a British Fantasy Award finalist.
The book has received blurbs from Pat Cadigan (“Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki is producing some of the most important new work in our field”), P. Djéli Clark (“one of the freshest and brilliant voices in SFF right now . . . this is one name to look out for”), Adrian Tchaikovsky (“wild and electric imagination”), and David Brin (“Ekpeki’s Afropantheology quest is like no other”).
In 2022, Ekpeki joined 15 other African writers and curators on the cover of Open Country Mag’s landmark The Next Generation special issue, with a feature on his groundbreaking curatorial work in African speculative fiction and fantasy.