Stephen Embleton
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. More short fiction followed 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, and The Kalahari Review. He is a charter member of the African Speculative Fiction Society and its Nommo Awards initiative. 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 – and was shortlisted for the Nommo Awards by the African Speculative Fiction Society, in May 2021. His YA fantasy novel, Bones & Runes, first published in the UK in February 2022, is due for worldwide release in 2027.
His essay "There is Magic in African Literature" (and cover feature) was published in the University of Oxford, African Studies Centre 2022 Newsletter. Stephen has authored an academic essay for Bloomsbury UK "Cosmologies and Languages Building Africanfuturism: from Bones & Runes to the Sauúti Collective" for publication in 2024.
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. Stephen is co-editor, alongside Cheryl S. Ntumy and Eugen Bacon, on the second and third Sauúti anthologies – "Sauúti Terrors" (2026) and "Sauúti Horror" (2027) – through Flame Tree Publishing and Simon & Schuster.
