// Workers AI · dad joke modeIs Wole Talabi a writer? Tale-ably yes.

Wole Talabi
Born	Oluwole Talabi (1986-02-28) 28 February 1986 Warri, Delta State, Nigeria
Other name	The Alchemist
Occupations	Author, editor
Notable work	Africanfuturism: An Anthology (2020) Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon (2023) Convergence Problems (2024)
Website	wtalabi.wordpress.com

Oluwole Talabi Listen^ⓘ(born 28 February 1986) is a Nigerian science fiction writer, engineer, and editor, who is considered among the Third Generation of Nigerian Writers.

Early life and education

Talabi was raised in Warri, Delta, a city in southern Nigeria, where his father was a chemical engineer, before later moving to Benin. He studied chemical engineering at Obafemi Awolowo University and earned a master's degree at Imperial College London.

Career

Talabi then worked as an engineer, and partway through his career began to write professionally. He stated that he had never been formally trained in writing except for two online classes from the University of Edinburgh and the University of Michigan, but he had written stories since learning to read as a child.

His works include an amount of short stories; the anthologies These Words Expose Us: An Anthology (2014), Lights Out: Resurrection (2016), Africanfuturism: An Anthology (2020).

Incomplete Solutions, published in 2019, was Talabi's first published collection of short stories, covering five years of his writing. The stories are from a range of speculative genres but also include non-speculative romance, and they explore contradicting philosophies and levels of hope, but often have themes of choice and identity. They embed Nigerian culture and perspectives without explaining them to unfamiliar readers. Adri Joy, reviewing for Strange Horizons, praised the intriguing, fun and varied nature of the stories, while wishing for fewer male-centered or chauvinistic perspectives.

Talabi published his debut novel Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon in 2023. Shigidi is a Yoruba god of nightmares who wants to get out of his minimum wage job at the Orisha Spirit Company. Shigidi's lover Nneoma, a succubus, helps him pull off a heist so he can leave: they have been tasked with stealing back the heavily protected brass head of Obulafon from the British Museum. Chris Kluwe, reviewing for Lightspeed, praised the novel and said the pair's relationship and themes of capitalism and colonialism drive the story. Gary K. Wolfe, reviewing for Locus, praised the book's balance of genre elements, keeping the "kinetic mix of noir heist fiction, erotic romance, political intrigue, and supernatural fireworks without distracting too much from the genuinely affecting relationship between Nneoma and Shigidi." Architra Mittra, for Strange Horizons, also praised the book's balance of genre and its entertaining exploration of heavy themes, but criticized the stereotypical elements of the main relationship.

Convergence Problems, a collection released in 2024, focused on more traditional science fiction themes, with ideas, characterization, and Nigerian culture driving the pieces.

He was described in Scientific American as "an author who blends transhumanism and the Turing test".

Talabi has been a manager of a database of speculative fiction by African authors on the African Speculative Fiction Society website. Talabi is a founding charter member of the society.

Personal life

He married Rocío Vizuete Fernandez in 2023 at Madrid, Spain.

Awards and recognition

Awards and recognition

Year	Work	Award	Category	Result	Ref.
2017	"Wednesday's Story"	Nommo Award	Short Story	Finalist
2018		Caine Prize	—	Shortlisted
	"The Regression Test"	Nommo Award	Short Story	Won
2020	Incompleteness Theories		Novella	Won
	"When We Dream We Are Our God"		Short Story	Finalist
2021	Africanfuturism: An Anthology	Locus Award	Anthology	Finalist
2022	"An Arc of Electric Skin"	Locus Award	Short Story	Finalist
		Nommo Award	Short Story	Finalist
	"Blowout"	Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award	—	Honorable Mention
	"Preliminary Observations From An Incomplete History of African SFF"	BSFA Award	Non-Fiction	Shortlisted
	"A Dream of Electric Mothers"	Nebula Award	Novelette	Nominated
		Sidewise Award for Alternate History	Short Form	Won
2023		Hugo Award	Novelette	Finalist
		Locus Award	Novelette	Finalist
	Mothersound: The Sauútiverse Anthology	BSFA Award	Collection	Shortlisted
	"Preliminary Observations From An Incomplete History of African SFF"	Ignyte Award	Creative Nonfiction	Finalist
	"Prisoners in the Temple of the Muses"	BSFA Award	Non-fiction (short)	Shortlisted
	"Saturday's Song"	Nebula Award	Novelette	Nominated
	Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon	BSFA Award	Novel	Shortlisted
		Nebula Award	Novel	Nominated
2024	Convergence Problems	BSFA Award	Collection	Shortlisted
	Mothersound: The Sauútiverse Anthology	British Fantasy Award	Anthology	Shortlisted
		Locus Award	Anthology	Finalist
	Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon	British Fantasy Award	Fantasy Novel	Shortlisted
		Crawford Award	—	Honorable Mention
		Ignyte Award	Adult Novel	Finalist
		Locus Award	First Novel	Finalist
		Nommo Award	Novel	Won
		World Fantasy Award	Novel	Finalist
	"Unquiet on the Eastern Front"	BSFA Award	Short Fiction	Shortlisted
2025	—N/a	Ignyte Award	Community Award	Nominated
	Convergence Problems	Locus Award	Collection	Finalist
	Descent	BSFA Award	Shorter Fiction	Shortlisted
		Nebula Award	Novella	Nominated
	"Encore"	Locus Award	Novelette	Finalist
	Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon	Aldiss Award	—	Shortlisted
2026	"Blowout"	Seiun Award	Translated Short Story	Finalist
	Descent	Ignyte Award	Novella	Pending

After winning his third Nommo Award in 2024, and having won on all three prose categories, he announced that he would decline any future nominations to clear the field for new writers.

Bibliography

Novels

• — (8 August 2023). Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon. DAW Books. ISBN 9780756418939.
• Forthcoming: — (27 October 2026). The Fist of Memory. DAW Books. ISBN 9780756418243.

Collections

• — (4 June 2019). Incomplete Solutions. Luna Press Publishing. ISBN 9781911143550.
• — (13 February 2024). Convergence Problems. DAW Books. ISBN 9780756418830.

Anthologies

• —, ed. (1 September 2014). These Words Expose Us: An Anthology. CreateSpace. ISBN 9781500207175.
• —, ed. (13 October 2016). Lights Out: Resurrection. CreateSpace. ISBN 9781539342724.
• —, ed. (19 October 2020). Africanfuturism: An Anthology. Brittle Paper. Full text online.
• —, ed. (21 November 2023). Mothersound: The Sauútiverse Anthology. Android Press. ISBN 9781958121603.

Short Fiction

Weekdays series

• — (16 December 2014). "Thursday". The Kalahari Review.
• — (May 2016). "Wednesday's Story". Lightspeed. No. 72.
  • Reprinted: "Wednesday's Story". Redemption Song and Other Stories: The Caine Prize for African Writing 2018. New Internationalist. 2 July 2018. ISBN 9781780264615.

Standalone short fiction

• — (December 2011). "The Human Thing". TheNakedConvos.
  • Reprinted: — (12 October 2015). "The Human Thing". Sub-Saharan Magazine.
• —; Odukwe, Chioma; Oyekole, Oyekola; Oluwole, Bankola; Fatona, Adeyemi; Falowo, Damilare; Ekwe, Martin (August 2012). "False Lives" (PDF). AfroSays. Illustrated by Laolu Senbanjo.
• — (13 November 2012). "Transmission". BellaNaija Prose.
• — (December 2012). "Sakura". TheNakedConvos.
• — (19 November 2013). "Silence". BellaNaija Prose.
  • Reprinted: These Words Expose Us: An Anthology
• — (December 2013). "Connectome, Or, The Facts in the Case of Miss Valerie DeMarco, (Ph.D)". TheNakedConvos.
• — (April 2014). "Zombies". Klorofyl.
• — (April 2014). "Gamma: Or, Love in the Age of Radiation Poisoning". The Kalahari Review.
• — (December 2014). "Crocodile Ark". Omenana Magazine. No. 1. Illustrated by David Motutu.
• — (December 2014). "Lights in the Sky". TheNakedConvos.
• — (February 2015). "Eye". Liquid Imagination. No. 24.
• — (June 2015). "Liar". Wazi.
• — (June 2015). "A Short History of Migration in Five Fragments of You". Omenana Magazine. No. 3.
• — (July 2015). "The In-Between Places". Klorofyl. No. 5.
• — (August 2015). "Parse. Error. Reset". Terraform.
  • Reprinted: — (16 August 2022). "Parse. Error. Reset.". In Merchant, Brian; Evans, Claire L. (eds.). Terraform: Watch/Worlds/Burn. MCD x FSG Originals. ISBN 9780374602666.
• — (22 February 2016). "Nested". Sci Phi Journal.
• — (1 June 2016). "If They Can Learn". In Hoster, Chester W.; Stauber, Katy (eds.). Futuristica: Volume 1. Metasagas Press. ISBN 9781939120069.
• — (5 September 2016). "Necessary and Sufficient Conditions". In Kahora, Billy (ed.). Imagine Africa 500: Speculative Fiction from Africa. Pan African Publishers. ASIN B01LNE7B4Y.
  • Reprinted: — (12 February 2019). "Necessary and Sufficient Conditions". Apex Magazine.
• — (5 September 2016). "I, Shigidi". Abyss & Apex Magazine.
• — (October 2016). "The Million Eyes of a Lonely and Fragile God". Stupefying Stories.
• — (November 2016). "The Last Lagosian". Omenana Magazine. No. 8.
• — (January 2017). "The Regression Test". The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
  • Reprinted: — (July 2017). "The Regression Test". The Manchester Review.
  • Reprinted: — (15 June 2021). "The Regression Test". In Ross, Tia (ed.). Black Sci-Fi Short Stories. Flame Tree Publishing. ISBN 9781839644801.
  • Reprinted: — (1 November 2022). "The Regression Test". In Tidhar, Lavie (ed.). The Best of World SF: Volume 2. Head of Zeus. ISBN 9781803280318.
  • Reprinted: — (14 February 2023). "The Regression Test". Computing and Technology Ethics: Engaging through Science Fiction. By Burton, Emmanuelle; et al. MIT Press. ISBN 9780262048064.

• "Home Is Where My Mother's Heart Is Buried" (2017)
• "Nneoma" (2017)
• "The Harmonic Resonance of Ejiro Anaborhi" (2018)
• "Drift-Flux" (2018)
• "When We Dream We Are Our God" (2019)
• "Incompleteness Theories" (2019)
• "Abeokuta52" (2019)
• "Tends to Zero" (2019)
• "Comments on Your Provisional Patent Application for An Eternal Spirit Core" (2021)
• "An Arc of Electric Skin" (2021)
• "A Dream of Electric Mothers" (2022)
• "Blowout" (2023)
• "Aboukela52" (2023)
• "Debut" (2024)
• "Embers" (2024)
• "Gamma (or: Love in the Age of Radiation Poisoning)" (2024)
• "Ganger" (2024)
• "Lights in the Sky" (2024)
• "Nigerian Dreams" (2024)
• "Performance Review" (2024)
• "Silence" (2024)