Sofia Samatar

Sofia Samatar (Somali: Sofia Samatar; Arabic: صوفيا ساماتار) is an American scholar, novelist and educator from Indiana.^[1] She is an associate professor of English at James Madison University.

Sofia Samatar
Born	Indiana, United States
Occupation	Professor editor poet writer
Alma mater	Goshen College, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Genre	Fantasy, mythology, postmodernism
Notable works	A Stranger in Olondria (2013), The White Mosque (2022)
Notable awards	British Fantasy Award, World Fantasy Award, John W. Campbell Award, Crawford Award
Spouse	Keith Miller
Children	2
Parents	Said Sheikh Samatar (father)
Website
sofiasamatar.com

Early life

Samatar was born in northern Indiana, United States.^[2] Her father was the Somali scholar, historian and writer Said Sheikh Samatar. Her mother is a Swiss-German Mennonite from North Dakota.^[2][3] Sofia's parents met in 1970 in Mogadishu, Somalia, while her mother was teaching English.^[4]

Samatar attended a Mennonite high school before studying at Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana,^[2] where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English. In 1997, Samatar earned a master's degree in African languages and literature from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in Madison, Wisconsin and a Ph.D. in 2013 in contemporary Arabic literature.^[5]

Career

Samatar is an associate professor of English at James Madison University.^[6]

Samatar's first novel A Stranger in Olondria^[2] was published in 2013.^[7]

Samatar has also published qasīdas in English and collaborated with her brother on a book of illustrated prose poems, entitled Monster Portraits, which was published in 2018 by Rose Metal Press. A sequel to A Stranger in Olondria, titled The Winged Histories, was published by Small Beer Press in 2016.^[8]

Samatar's main literary influences include Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, William Faulkner, and Rainer Maria Rilke, as well as Somali mythology.^[8][9] Samatar served as a nonfiction and poetry editor for Interfictions: A Journal of Interstitial Arts.

In 2022, she published her first nonfiction book, The White Mosque, a memoir about a trip to Uzbekistan in search of the followers of fringe religious leader Claas Epp Jr.^[1]

Awards

Samatar's short story "Selkie Stories Are for Losers" was a finalist for both the 2014 Nebula and Hugo Awards for Best Short Story, as well as the British Science Fiction Association Award and the World Fantasy Award.^[10]

Samatar's poem "APACHE CHIEF" was a finalist for a Rhysling Award.^[11]

In 2014, Samatar won the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel (the Robert Holdstock Award) for her book A Stranger in Olondria.^[12] She was also presented the World Fantasy Award for the work.^[7] In addition, Samatar received the 2014 Astounding Award for Best New Writer. She likewise won the Crawford Award and was a finalist for the Locus Award for Best First Novel.^[13]

Samatar's Monster Portraits, a collection of short fiction published in February 2018, was a finalist for the Calvino Prize.^[14]

The White Mosque was a finalist for the 2023 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award.^[15] It won the 2023 Bernard J. Brommel Award for Biography & Memoir (Midland Authors Book Award).^[16]

The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain is a finalist for the 2025 Hugo Award for Best Novella.^[17]

Personal

Samatar is married to American writer Keith R. Miller.^[2] They have two children.^[18] Although her father was a Muslim, she is a Mennonite^[19] like her mother.

Selected bibliography

Novels

• A Stranger in Olondria (Small Beer Press, 2013)
• The Winged Histories (Small Beer Press, 2016)

Nonfiction

• The White Mosque (Catapult, 2022)
• Tone (with Kate Zambreno. Columbia University Press, 2023)
• Opacities (Soft Skull Press, 2024)^[20]

Collection

• Tender (Small Beer Press, 2017)^[21]

Short fiction

• "Meet Me in Iram" (Guillotine Series No. 10, 2015)
• "The Closest Thing to Animals" (Fireside Fiction, 2015)
• "Tender" (OmniVerse, 2015)
• "Request for an Extension on the Clarity" (Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, 2015)
• "Those" (Uncanny Magazine, 2015)
• "Walkdog" (Kaleidoscope: Diverse YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories, 2014)
• "A Girl Who Comes Out of a Chamber at Regular Intervals" (Lackington's, 2014)
• "Ogres of East Africa" (Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History, 2014)
• "How to Get Back to the Forest" (Lightspeed, 2014)
• "Olimpia's Ghost" (Phantom Drift, 2013)
• "How I Met the Ghoul" (Eleven Eleven, 2013)
• "Bess, the Landlord's Daughter, Goes for Drinks with the Green Girl" (Glitter & Mayhem, 2013)
• "I Stole the D.C.'s Eyeglass" (We See a Different Frontier: A Postcolonial Speculative Fiction Anthology, 2013)
• "Dawn and the Maiden" (Apex Magazine, 2013)
• "Selkie Stories Are for Losers" (Strange Horizons, 2013)
• "Honey Bear" (Clarkesworld Magazine, 2012)
• "A Brief History of Nonduality Studies" (Expanded Horizons, 2012)
• "The Nazir" (Ideomancer, 2012)
• Monster Portraits (collection) (Rose Metal Press, 2017)
• Tender (collection) (Small Beer Press, 2017)
• The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain (novella) (Tor, 2024)

Poetry

• "Make the Night Go Faster" (Liminality, 2014)
• "The Death of Araweilo" (Tor.com, 2014)
• "Long-Ear" (Stone Telling, 2014)
• "APACHE CHIEF" (Flying Higher: An Anthology of Superhero Poetry, 2013)
• "Persephone Set Free" (Mythic Delirium, 2013)
• "Undoomed" (Ideomancer, 2013)
• "Shahrazad Spoils the Coffee" (Jabberwocky, 2012)
• "Snowbound in Hamadan" (Stone Telling, 2012)
• "Burnt Lyric" (Goblin Fruit, 2012)
• "The Hunchback's Mother" (inkscrawl, 2012)
• "Lost Letter" (Strange Horizons, 2012)
• "Qasida of the Ferryman" (Goblin Fruit, 2012)
• "The Year of Disasters" (Bull Spec, 2012)
• "Girl Hours" (Stone Telling, 2011)
• "The Sand Diviner" (Stone Telling, 2011)