Nalo Hopkinson

2 universes Last reviewed 2026-09-05

Nalo Hopkinson was born December 20, 1960, in Kingston, Jamaica, and grew up in Guyana, Trinidad, and Canada. Her mother worked as a library technician while her father was a Guyanese poet, playwright, and English and Latin instructor, creating a literary environment that exposed her to classic writers from an early age. Hopkinson earned a Master of Arts in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University, where she studied under science fiction author James Morrow; she also has learning disabilities. Before becoming a professor, she worked in libraries, as a government culture research officer, and as a grants officer at the Toronto Arts Council, and taught at workshops including Clarion East and Clarion West. In 2011 she became an associate professor of creative writing at UC Riverside, focusing on science fiction, fantasy, and magical realism, achieving full professor status in 2014. Her major novels include Brown Girl in the Ring (1998), Midnight Robber (2000), The Salt Roads (2003), and The New Moon's Arms (2007), alongside several edited anthologies and short story collections. Hopkinson received the 1999 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, multiple Sunburst Awards, and was named the 37th Damon Knight Grand Master in 2020 for lifetime achievement in science fiction and fantasy.

Universe(s)

Books

• Brown Girl in the Ring (1998) · Brown Girl in the Ring Core Canon
• The Salt Roads (2003) · The Salt Roads Core Canon

Aggregate across all universes

These are separate, unrelated universes; the totals below are plain sums of already-published per-universe facts, never a blended or averaged score across them. See each universe's own figures above.

• Total Core Canon books across all universes: 2 books
• Award recognitions across all universes: 1 (1 finalist mention)

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