The Dwight H. Terry Lectureship 2026
Nnedi Okorafor, PhD
Award-winning New York Times-bestselling writer of science fiction and fantasy for children and adults
“Africanjujuism: Notes from the Termite Mound”
Africanjujuism is a subcategory of fantasy that respectfully acknowledges the seamless blending of existing African spiritualities and cosmologies with the imaginative. “Africanjujuism: Notes from the Termite Mound” will ground Africanjujuism in lived experience and highlight it as a storytelling practice. Through personal history, masquerades, and narrative craft, the series will show how Africanjujuism dances with African cosmologies as living systems while simultaneously playing with metaphor and fantasy. It will examine how naming, culture, history, memory, secrecy, and imagination converge to expand reality, resist erasure, and build and restore stories.
Lectures
Tuesday, March 31 at 5:00 p.m. – Naming the Unseen
Monday, April 13 at 5:00 p.m. – Ndi Mmuo (The Spirits)
Friday, April 17 at 5:00 p.m. – Worlds of Spirit and Transformation
Location for all: Kline 14, 14th floor, Kline Tower, 219 Prospect Street, New Haven
All lectures are free and open to the public, with receptions to follow.
About the Speaker
Nnedi Okorafor is the global leader of Africanfuturism, a New York Times bestselling author, and an international literary superstar. She writes speculative fiction for adults, young adults, and children. Her latest adult novel, Death of the Author—which George R.R. Martin calls “her best work yet”—explores fame, the Nigerian Diaspora, disability, the writer’s life, AI and robots. Her all-ages graphic novel called The Space Cat was published in 2025, as well. And the final installment of her She Who Knows trilogy, The Daughter Who Remains, is scheduled for release in 2026.
Among her many acclaimed works are the groundbreaking Binti trilogy, the harrowing Who Fears Death, and the beloved Nsibidi Scripts series, all of which have been optioned for the screen. Nnedi is also the author of Marvel’s Black Panther: Long Live the King, Shuri, and Wakanda Forever. One of the most lauded writers in modern science fiction and fantasy, her honors include the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature, Nebula, World Fantasy, Locus, Eisner, and multiple Hugo and Lodestar Awards. Born in the United States to Nigerian/Igbo immigrant parents, Nnedi draws deeply from African cultures to create captivating worlds, unforgettable characters, and powerful, evocative stories. She holds a PhD in Literature and two Master’s degrees in Journalism and Literature.