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Stephen Embleton

Goodreads Author

Born

Durban, South Africa

Website

http://stephen.embleton.co.za/

Twitter

https://twitter.com/spembleton

Genre

Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction

Influences

Wole Soyinka, Bessie Head, Nadine Gordimer, Iain Banks, John Steinbeck ...more

Member Since

September 2016

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/stephenembleton

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Stephen was born in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and is now a resident in Oxford, United Kingdom, since being an academic visitor to the African Studies Centre, University of Oxford in 2022. Stephen was awarded the Best Novella by an African in the 7th Nommo Awards presented in person at Glasgow WorldCon in August 2024 for his Sauúti-based novella, "Undulation". 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 R Stephen was born in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and is now a resident in Oxford, United Kingdom, since being an academic visitor to the African Studies Centre, University of Oxford in 2022. Stephen was awarded the Best Novella by an African in the 7th Nommo Awards presented in person at Glasgow WorldCon in August 2024 for his Sauúti-based novella, "Undulation". 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His then unpublished YA fantasy novel, Bones & Runes, was a top 5 finalist in the 2021 inaugural James Currey Prize for African Literature, and was first published in the UK in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 was invited as an Academic Visitor to the African Studies Centre, Oxford University 2022. Stephen was the editor of the 2023 edition of the posthumously published final novel of Flora Nwapa, The Lake Goddess. He is one of the ten African writers making up the Sauúti Collective – the Afro-centric, fantasy and speculative fiction shared-world. The first Sauúti anthology, Mothersound, was published in 2023. He was on the Sauúti Collective panel at the Aké Arts & Book Festival 2022 in Lagos, Nigeria, as well hosting at the panel at Africa Writes in London in 2023.

Stephen was awarded a literary grant by the Royal Literary Fund in 2024, providing financial assistance to write while recognising the literary merit of his body of work and literature-related activities.

Stephen’s academic essay, "Cosmologies and Languages Building Africanfuturism", appears in the 2024 Bloomsbury essay collection 'Afro-Centered Futurisms in Our Speculative Fiction'.
Stephen is the co-editor, alongside Cheryl Ntumy and Eugen Bacon, on the second Sauúti anthology – "Sauúti Terrors" out in two volumes in 2026 and 2027 through Flame Tree Publishing and Simon & Schuster. ...more

108 posts
Stephen Embleton's Blog

BORDERLESS – Vai/Beria Inspired Font Design

For a while, I have been developing a typeface, a headline font, which I took inspiration from many of the forms in the Vai syllabary (the Vai people from Liberia) and the Beria script (Chad/Sudan). I recently had the perfect opportunity to use this bold and unique lettering, and fine tune the typeface – MORE ON THAT SOON!

Below are the Latin-based characters I created and their variants. I

Combine Editions
Stephen Embleton’s books

Average rating: 3.81 · 101 ratings · 38 reviews · 9 distinct works • Similar authors

	AfroSFv3 by Ivor W. Hartmann (Goodreads Author) (Editor), T.L. Huchu, Cristy Zinn (Goodreads Author) 3.65 avg rating — 34 ratings — published 2018 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Soul Searching 3.48 avg rating — 21 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	MOTHERSOUND: The Sauútiverse Anthology by Wole Talabi (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Eugen Bacon (Goodreads Author), Tobias S. Buckell (Goodreads Author) 4.27 avg rating — 15 ratings — published 2023 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Imagine Africa 500 by Billy Kahora (Editor), Shadreck Chikoti (Editor), Bertan Selim (Foreword) 3.75 avg rating — 16 ratings — published 2016 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Sauúti Terrors by Eugen Bacon (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Cheryl S. Ntumy (Editor), Stephen Embleton (Goodreads Author) (Editor) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 15 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bloody Parchment: Remains of an Old World by Nerine Dorman (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Brett Rex Bruton (Goodreads Author), Janine Milne 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2018 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bones and Runes really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2022 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The James Currey Anthology it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Black Dingo Short Stories by Eugen Bacon (Goodreads Author), Christel Mutombo (Narrator), Kofi Boakye (Narrator) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Stephen Embleton wrote a new blog post BORDERLESS – Vai/Beria Inspired Font Design For a while, I have been developing a typeface, a headline font, which I took inspiration from many of the forms in the Vai syllabary (the Vai people Read more of this blog post »
May 12, 2026 06:11AM · like