Sofia Samatar

Sofia Samatar
File:Sofia Samatar (2) - Imaginales 2017.jpg
Born	(1971-10-24) 24 October 1971 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

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

Early life

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

Samatar attended a Mennonite high school before studying at Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana, 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.

Career

Samatar is an associate professor of English at James Madison University.

Samatar's first novel A Stranger in Olondria was published in 2013.

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.

Samatar's main literary influences include Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, William Faulkner, and Rainer Maria Rilke, as well as Somali mythology. 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.

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.

Samatar's poem "APACHE CHIEF" was a finalist for a Rhysling Award.

In 2014, Samatar won the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel (the Robert Holdstock Award) for her book A Stranger in Olondria. She was also presented the World Fantasy Award for the work. 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.

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

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

The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain is a finalist for the 2025 Hugo Award for Best Novella. It was also a finalist for the 2025 Ignyte Award for Outstanding Novella. ¹⁸

Personal

Samatar is married to American writer Keith R. Miller. They have two children. Although her father was a Muslim, she is a Mennonite 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)
• Friendly City: A Year of Walks (Quinx Books, 2025)

Collection

• Tender (Small Beer Press, 2017)

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)

External links

• Sofia Samatar at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database