Sofia Samatar writes about complex themes such as identity, memory, and home with incisive insight and lyrical language. Her works often explore how the past shapes the present and the ways individuals navigate their sense of belonging. Through rich, atmospheric descriptions and deep psychological resonance, Samatar crafts narratives that are both intellectually stimulating and emotionally affecting. Her unique voice in literature offers readers an immersive and unforgettable experience.
Exploring the realms of the ordinary and the surreal, this collection features twenty stories categorized into "Tender Bodies" and "Tender Landscapes." Each tale delves into the complexities of human experience, blending everyday moments with extraordinary elements, inviting readers to reflect on the nuances of life and perception.
Four women, soldier, scholar, poet, and socialite, are caught up on different sides of a violent rebellion. As war erupts and their families are torn apart, they fear they may disappear into the unwritten pages of history. Using the sword and the pen, the body and the voice, they struggle not just to survive, but to make history. Sofia Samatar is the author of the Crawford, British Fantasy, and World Fantasy award-winning novel A Stranger in Olondria. She also received the John W. Campbell Award. She has written for the Guardian, Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, and many other publications. She lives in California. Her website is sofiasamatar.com. Praise for A Stranger in Olondria: "A book about the love of books. Her sentences are intoxicating and one can easily be lost in their intricacy. . . . Samatar's beautifully written book is one that will be treasured by book lovers everywhere."— Raul M. Chapa, BookPeople, Austin, Texas
A rich history of wanderers, exiles and intruders. A haunting personal journey through Central Asia. An intimate reflection on mixed identity shaped by cultural crossings. In the late 1800s, a group of German-speaking Mennonites fled Russia for Muslim Central Asia, to await Christ's return. Over a century later, Sofia Samatar traces their gruelling journey across desert and mountains, and its improbable fruit: a small Christian settlement inside the Khanate of Khiva. Named 'The White Mosque' after the Mennonites' whitewashed church, the village-a community of peace, prophecy, music and martyrs-lasted fifty years. Within this curious tale, Sofia discovers a tapestry of characters connected by the ancient Silk Road: a fifteenth-century astronomer-king; an intrepid Swiss woman traveller; the first Uzbek photographer; a free spirit of the Harlem Renaissance. Along the way, in a voice both warm and wise, she explores her own complex upbringing as an American Mennonite of colour, the daughter of a Swiss-American Christian and a Somali Muslim. On this pilgrimage to a lost village and a near-forgotten history, Samatar traces the porous borders of identity and narrative. When you leave your tribe, what remains? How do we enter the stories of others? And how, out of life's buried archives and startling connections, does a person construct a self?
Set against the backdrop of the late nineteenth century, the narrative follows the journey of German-speaking Mennonites who settled in Central Asia, led by a charismatic figure anticipating Christ's return. Sofia Samatar's modern exploration of this history reveals the establishment of Ak Metchet, a unique Christian village in a Muslim region. Through her journey, she encounters diverse characters linked to the Silk Road and delves into themes of cultural identity, faith, and her own mixed heritage as a Swiss-Mennonite and Somali-Muslim.
Jevik travels to the city of Olondria where he is overtaken by a ghost from his past.
Tone is a collaborative study of literary tone, exploring its implications for community, politics, and ecology.
Celebrated author Sofia Samatar presents a mystical, revolutionary space adventure for the exhausted dreamer in this brilliant science fiction novella tackling the carceral state and violence embedded in the ivory tower while embodying the legacy of Ursula K. Le Guin.
Opacities is a book about writing, publishing, and friendship. Rooted in an epistolary relationship between Sofia Samatar and a friend and fellow writer, this collection of meditations traces Samatar's attempt to rediscover the intimacy of writing In a series of compressed, dynamic prose pieces, Samatar blends letters from her friend with notes on literature, turning to Édouard Glissant to study the necessary opacity of identity, to Theresa Hak Kyung Cha for a model of literary kinship, and to a variety of others, including Clarice Lispector, Maurice Blanchot, and Rainer Maria Rilke, for insights on the experience and practice of writing. In so doing, Samatar addresses a number of questions about the writing life: Why does publishing feel like the opposite of writing? How can a black woman navigate interviews and writing conferences without being reduced to a symbol? Are writers located in their biographies or in their texts? And above all, how can the next book be written? Blurring the line between author and character and between correspondence and literary criticism, Opacities delivers a personal, contemplative exploration of writing where it lives, among impassioned conversations and the work of beloved writers.