Stephen Embleton

Stephen was born in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and is now a resident in Oxford, United Kingdom, since his 2022 James Currey Fellowship at the African Studies Centre, University of Oxford. His background is Graphic Design, Creative Direction and Film.

His first short story was published in 2015 in the "Imagine Africa 500" speculative fiction anthology, followed by more in the “Beneath This Skin” 2016 Edition of Aké Review, “The Short Story is Dead, Long Live the Short Story! Vol.2”, the debut edition of Enkare Review 2017, The Bloody Parchment, AfroSFv3, The Kalahari Review, Burning House Press, Omenana Magazine, and The Shallow Tales Review. He was featured in Part 11 of the 100 African Writers of SFF on Strange Horizons.

His debut speculative fiction novel, Soul Searching, was published in the UK and US in August/September 2020. He is a charter member of the African Speculative Fiction Society and its Nommo Awards initiative.

His then unpublished YA fantasy novel, Bones & Runes, was a top 5 finalist in the 2021 inaugural James Currey Prize for African Literature, and was published in the UK in February 2022. Awarded the James Currey Fellowship at African Studies Centre, Oxford University 2022. His essay "There is Magic in African Literature" (and cover feature) was published in the University of Oxford, African Studies Centre 2022 Newsletter. Stephen is the editor of The James Currey Anthology 2022, featuring short fiction and non-fiction with contributors hailing from Botswana to Nigeria, Ghana to South Africa – writing from the Continent or in the diaspora.

Stephen is one of the ten African writers making up the Sauúti Collective, a group of African writers who created the Sauútiverse shared-world fantasy and speculative fiction universe for a short story anthology and beyond. He was on the Sauúti Collective panel at the Aké Arts & Book Festival 2022 in Lagos, N

igeria.