Kenechi Udogu's Blog: Caeblogs

If you’re following me on my socials, you’ll probably already know that I’ll be appearing on author panels at on Friday 24 October and at YALC (part of London Comic Con Winter) on Saturday 15 November 2025! I’m really excited about connecting with new audiences and getting to chat about sci-fi concepts and utopias/dystopias with some incredibly talented authors. There’ll also be opportunities for book signings after each panel.

Event booking details are available via ...

It’s time for a long overdue post! I was going to share this last month, but so much has been going on, it didn’t quite happen. Better late than never!

Augmented has been out in the world since 5th June (with a US release date of 12th August), and I’m so pleased it has been received well. It was selected as The Times Children’s Book of the Week in mid June, featured as one of the best children’s and YA books of the month in The Guardian and also chosen as one of the best YA fiction books for ...

The cover for AUGMENTED, my prize-winning debut YA eco sci-fi novel, is here! And it is absolutely stunning! I’m so grateful to the Art and Comms department at Faber, and Manzi Jackson, the cover artist, for bringing Akaego and her ability to life so perfectly. Augmented will be available on 5th June 2025, but you can pre-order a copy now from major retailers via one of the purchase links listed in my linktree https://linktr.ee/kenechiudogu

And if you were wondering what Augmented’s about...

In this case, eighteen months, because the last time I posted here was all the way back in March 2022 when I was still riding the high of finishing my term on the HarperCollins Author Academy. Cue shocked gasps… Okay, no one is surprised. I’ve been rubbish at updating this blog in recent years, but so much has happened, I couldn’t let 2023 pass without dropping this. All I can say is, following through by acting on Aaliyah’s lyrics (if at first you don’t succeed, dust it off and try again – se...

Every time I say these words to myself, I break into song in my head and try not to bob along to a silent beat (I blame Aaliyah and Timbaland for this). But that’s not what this post is about.

Once again, I’m shocked at how long it’s been since I last shared any news on here. Ten months! Seriously, where does time go? At least I can say I have good reason for my prolonged silence this time. I’ve actually been writing – A LOT! Like, a lot, a lot. Brace yourself, this might be a long one.

Ov...

A month ago (gosh, it feels like even longer), when I posted about good things coming in threes, I mentioned that the exciting third thing I wanted to share with you guys was to do with another translation of one of my books. Well, I can now reveal what it is! Okay, I already gave it away in the header to this post, but I still wanted a drum roll moment. It is, of course, the third foreign language translation of The Other Slipper! And my first work translated into French. Long overdue, but bett...

Alas, it feels like I’ve formed a habit of only posting on here once or twice a year, and only when there is something to share. I know I’ve said it before, but I’m really, really, going to try to work on getting more writing done here.

Anyway, remember the short story, Locked, which I posted about back in 2019 following an unsuccessful BAME competition entry? Well, as promised, I didn’t lose hope and decided to enter it into another competition, because I truly believed in it enough to give ...

Hi everyone, a belated happy new year to you all. Thought I’d kick off the year by posting my flash fiction contribution for a competition entry for a 200 – 300 words mystery story based on an elephant (random, but aren’t most competitions?). Mystery is not really a genre I write so this was a little challenging but figured I’d give it a go. Hope you enjoy it.

DARK EDGES

She had been holding her breath for a few seconds and knew she would pass out if she didn’t let it out soon. Dizzying...

Back in May, a friend of mine brought the Guardian and 4th Estate BAME Shorty Story Prize to my attention. The competition, which was set up in 2015, is intended to discover and promote talent from Black, Asian and Mixed Ethnicity backgrounds whose voices statistically tend to get overlooked by traditional publishers. In the spirit of 2019 being the year of my return to fiction writing, I decided I’d give this a go.

At first, I struggled to come up with an idea I felt I could work with but, w...

It has been nearly 18 months since I last posted on here (Oct 2017, whaaat?)! Gosh, where has the time gone? I wish I could say I have spent all this time writing an epic bestselling novel, meeting with Netflix producers over a glass or two of champagne and generally refining my writing skills but, sadly, real life got in the way and I’ve pretty much done NONE of that. A few life changes have been recently made so I hope this means I’ll be able to get back into writing with some sense of joy,...