Tade Thompson

Tade Thompson FRSL is a British-born Nigerian psychiatrist and writer of Yoruba descent.^[1] He is best known for his 2016 science fiction novel Rosewater, which won a Nommo Award and an Arthur C. Clarke Award.^[2][3]

Tade Thompson FRSL
Born	Tade Thompson 1969 (age 55–56) London, United Kingdom
Occupation	Writer, psychiatrist
Nationality	Nigerian British
Period	2005–present
Genre	Science fiction, Horror
Notable work	Rosewater The Murders of Molly Southbourne
Notable awards	Arthur C. Clarke Award Nommo Award

Life and career

Thompson was born in London, England, to Yoruba parents. His family left the United Kingdom for Nigeria in 1976, when Thompson was seven. He grew up in Nigeria, where he studied medicine and social anthropology. He went on to specialise in psychiatry. He returned to the UK in 1998, where he has remained, except for a year spent working in Samoa. He now lives on the south coast of England.^[4][5][3]

As well as being an author, Thompson also works full-time at St James' Hospital, Portsmouth, where he specializes in mental illnesses in people with physical problems. In July 2020, he told The Guardian that he could not imagine leaving medicine, saying: “The hospital work is a calling. I help people.”^[6]

Thompson is also an illustrator and artist.^[2][7][8]

Reception

Thompson's novels and short stories have been critically well received, with critics commenting on their originality and breadth of vision.^[9] His debut novel, Making Wolf, won the 2016 Kitschies Golden Tentacle Award.^[10] He was a John W. Campbell Award finalist and has been shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson Award, the BSFA Award, and the Nommo Award.^{[3][4][5][11][12][13][14]} His second novel Rosewater, the first book in the Wormwood trilogy set in Nigeria, won the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2019.^[15] And his 2022 novella, Jackdaw, was described in the Financial Times as: "a metafictional dive into the life of Francis Bacon."^[16]

In 2020, it was announced that The Murders of Molly Southbourne had been optioned for screen adaptation by production company Complete Fiction in collaboration with Netflix.^[17]

In 2023, Thompson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.^[18]

Bibliography

Novels

The Wormwood Trilogy

• —— (2016). Rosewater (1st ed.). Apex.^[19]
  • —— (2018). Rosewater (paperback ed.). Orbit. pp. 1–432. ISBN 9780316449052.
• —— (2019). The Rosewater Insurrection (paperback ed.). Orbit. pp. 1–374. ISBN 9780316449083.
• —— (2019). The Rosewater Redemption (paperback ed.). Orbit. pp. 1–416. ISBN 9780316449090.

Stand-alone

• —— (2015). Making Wolf (hardcover 1st ed.). Rosarium Publishing. pp. 1–270. ISBN 9781495607486.
• —— (2021). Far from the Light of Heaven (hardcover 1st ed.). Orbit. pp. 1–384. ISBN 9780759557918.

Novellas and short fiction

The Molly Southbourne Trilogy

• The Murders of Molly Southbourne (2017)
• The Survival of Molly Southbourne (2019)
• The Legacy of Molly Southbourne (2022)

Stand-alone

• "The McMahon Institute for Unquiet Minds" (2005)
• "Slip Road" (2009)
• "Shadow" (2010)
• "Notes from Gethsemane" (2012)
• "Bicycle Girl" (2013)
• "One Hundred and Twenty Days of Sunlight" (2013)
• "Slip Road" (revised) (2014)
• "Budo or, The Flying Orchid" (2014)
• "The Monkey House" (2015)
• "Child, Funeral, Thief, Death" (2015)
• "The Last Pantheon" (2015) (with Nick Wood)
• "Decommissioned" (2016)
• "Household Gods" (2016)
• "The Apologists" (2016)
• "Gnaw" (2016)
• "Bootblack" (2017)
• "Yard Dog" (2018)
• "Jackdaw" (2022)

Poems

• "Komolafe" (2013)

Essays

• The Last Word on the Last Pantheon (2016) (with Nick Wood)
• Please Stop Talking about the 'Rise' of African Science Fiction (2018)

Contributor

• "Wherefore, Nuncle?" in Encounters with James Baldwin: Celebrating 100 Years. (2024)

Other work

• Omenana Magazine #4 (September 2015) (cover art)
• In Morningstar's Shadow: Dominion of the Fallen Stories by Aliette de Bodard (2015) (cover art)