Solaris is delighted to announce the acquisition of What Brings You Here from award-winning editors Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki and Somto Ihezue.
Inspired by Ekpeki’s experiences travelling to Worldcon in 2022, What Brings You Here is a speculative fiction anthology that seeks to investigate time, place, and history in conversation with occurrences such as migration or travel that is astral, corporeal, planetary, imagined futures or past events tapping in with the politics of gender, region, culture, forced or voluntary movement. This anthology will delve into perspectives of arrivals, whether due to coercion, climate change, accessibility to resources, conflict, marginalization, or aspirations for a brighter tomorrow, and will explore themes of immigration, displacement, anti-imperialism, and nomadic experiences in unexplored, near-future, and imaginative realms, juxtaposing new tales with more familiar accounts. World English Rights were acquired by David Thomas Moore.
Submissions for What Brings You Here are currently open until 30th September 2024. There’s a flexible limit of 5,000 words. Please send your stories as an attachment, and any questions, to the editors at [email protected].
Editor Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki on the anthology:
“I am so excited to be working with Solaris on this anthology. It was inspired by the difficulties I faced travelling to the US and other states in the global North, from the global south. Difficulties, which many persons like myself without passport and other privileges have faced while trying to access the wider world. I believe that these kinds of stories need to be told and heard, and they, like the people that hold them, be allowed to fly free and soar high, unburdened by the shackles of borders and prejudices. It brings me great joy to work on a project like this and towards a world where this is all someday possible. Thankful to Solaris and happy to work with them, in helping make this happen.”
And from Editor Somto Ihezue:
“Super excited to be working with Solaris on this unique and intriguing anthology!”
From David Thomas Moore, Fiction Commissioning Editor for Rebellion Publishing:
“I watched aghast on social media as Oghenechovwe fought for permission to travel to the awards ceremony following his historic nomination, and again a few months later as he was detained by border forces in spite of travelling with a legitimate visa. I’ve travelled with BIPOC friends and colleagues and watched them submit, with mute resignation, to bag checks and heightened scrutiny every single time they fly, knowing I would sail through without question. When Oghenechovwe mentioned wanting to develop an anthology inspired by his experiences, I reached out and asked if Solaris could publish it—it was a fantastic idea and an exciting prospect.”
Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki is a speculative fiction writer, editor & publisher in Nigeria. He has won the Nebula, Locus, Otherwise, Nommo, British & World Fantasy awards and been a finalist in the Hugo, Sturgeon, British Science Fiction and NAACP Image awards. His works have appeared in Asimov’s, F&SF, Uncanny Magazine, Tordotcom, Apex, Strange Horizons, Galaxy’s Edge, and others. He founded the Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction anthology series and edited African Risen, the Dominion anthology and others. He was a guest of honour at CanCon, and the Afrofuturism themed ICFA 44 where he coined the genre label, Afropantheology.
Somto Ihezue is a speculative fiction writer, editor, and filmmaker. He is a recipient of the Mandela Institute’s African Youth Network Movement Fiction Prize, the Horror Writers Association Grant, and the EbonyLife Academy Alumni Film Grant. His work was shortlisted for the British Fantasy Award (Sydney J. Bounds) for Best New Writer, the Afritondo Short Story Prize, the Utopia Awards, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, the British Science Fiction Award, and the Nommo Awards. His works have found homes in venues like Tordotcom Publishing’s Africa Risen, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, POETRY Magazine, Strange Horizons, Fireside, Podcastle, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Escape Pod, Omenana Magazine, Africa In Dialogue, The Sauútiverse Anthology, and others. Somto is an Alumni of the Tin House Workshop, Milford Writers Workshop, and scheduled to attend the 2024 Clarion West Writers Workshop. Somto is Original Fiction Manager at Escape Artists, an acquiring Editor with Android Press, and an intern for the Publishing Taught Me Project, an SFWA [Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers’ Association] and NEA [National Endowment for the Arts] sponsored program. He tweets at somto_Ihezue.
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