Other Futures

Nisi Shawl

"I think of speculative fiction as basically taking care of all of our needs when it comes to imagining ourselves, imagining ourselves doing better, imagining ourselves in the future, imagining ourselves in the past."

Nisi Shawl (USA) is a journalist, activist and writer of short science fiction and fantasy stories in which she develops alternative histories.

Everfair is her first science fiction novel. What if the original inhabitants of Congo had developed the technique of the steam engine earlier than their colonial oppressors? In Writing the Other, co-authored with Cynthia Ward, she explores ways of making believable characters from a different culture come to life, instead of falling back on clichés or ending up with flat characters.


Friday 2, 18.15: Nisi Shawl

Sunday 4, 13:15 Nisi Shawl & Martijn Lindeboom & Godelieve Spaas: Writing about the Other

Sunday 4, 17.45: Nisi Shawl & Rochita Loenen-Ruiz: The legacy of Octavia E. Butler