Taking It Back: Reclaiming What Was Stolen With Nalo Hopkinson
Join us for an intimate evening with Jamaican-born author Nalo Hopkinson, recipient of the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic for her novel Blackheart Man. Hopkinson thinks a lot about how rising ocean levels impact her region. She will present two climate fiction stories, ranging from science-based to the disquieting monologue narrated by a guide leading a tour of a recently submerged island.
Presented in partnership with UBC Global History of Anticolonial Thought.
Doors at 6:30pm
Reading at 7:00pm
Q&A at 8:00pm
About the Author
Nalo Hopkinson, born in Jamaica, moved to Canada in 1977. She was the 1997 recipient of the Warner Aspect First Novel Contest for Brown Girl in the Ring. She has published seven novels, numerous short stories, and comics scripts in DC's "Sandman" universe. She has received the Ontario Arts Council Foundation Award, the John W. Campbell and Locus Awards, the World Fantasy Award, Canada's Aurora Award, the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, and the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Award. In 2020, Science Fiction Writers of America made her its 37th Damon Knight Memorial "Grand Master," a lifetime achievement award in recognition of her writing, teaching, and mentorship. She is a professor in the School of Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia. Her most recent publications are Blackheart Man (novel, Simon & Schuster, 2024), and short story collection Jamaica Ginger and Other Concoctions (Tachyon Publications, 2024).
About the Moderator
Ayesha Hameed is an artist and writer. She has two books forthcoming in Autumn 2026: Black Atlantis (Strange Attractor/MIT Press) and Radio Brown Atlantis (CARA, NY). She’s Professor of Artistic Research at University of the Arts Helsinki and teaches on the MFA at Goldsmiths University of London.
Banner image: Nalo Hopkinson, photograph by David C. Findlay, 2025