’Tis the season for awards and honors, and this one is incredibly well-deserved: TIME has named N.K. Jemisin one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2021. This comes on the heels of Jemisin being named a 2020 MacArthur Fellow; widespread acclaim for her novel The City We Became; and the news that adaptations of both her Inheritance Trilogy and Broken Earth trilogy are in the works—with Jemisin writing the screenplay for the latter.
No one can respond better to this news than the author herself:
Well, slap me over with a flounder. I am apparently Influential, according to @TIME and @staceyabrams! I'm honored. This is wild. https://t.co/y31dFyplqn
— N. K. Jemisin (@nkjemisin) September 15, 2021
Author and politician Stacey Abrams explained Jemisin’s influence for TIME, saying,
What N.K. Jemisin accomplishes in each of her works defies the standard “us vs. them” narrative and instead dares readers to bring their lived experiences into the space she has imagined. […] Jemisin’s genius is in how effortlessly she shatters our misconceptions about one another and our world, then invites us to dream to do better.
Last year, YA author Tomi Adeyemi was on TIME‘s list. The 2021 list also includes Eternals director Chloe Zhao, musician Lil Nas X, and actors Steven Yeun, Daniel Kaluuya, and Omar Sy, along with activists, icons, and innovators from around the world.
Jemisin’s last novel was 2020’s The City We Became, the first novel in her Great Cities Trilogy, which Tochi Onyebuchi reviewed brilliantly. There’s no word yet on when the next book in the trilogy will arrive.
