Cadwell Turnbull is an American

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

and

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

writer from the

U.S. Virgin Islands The United States Virgin Islands, officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of Caribbean islands and a territory of the United States. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located ...

. He is the author of award-winning short stories and novels, including ''The Lesson'' (2019) and '' No Gods, No Monsters'' (2021)''.'' Turnbull also co-writes under the

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

"Darkly Lem" with Josh Eure, Craig Lincoln, Ben Murphy, and M. Darusha Wehm.

Biography

Turnbull was born on August 12, 1987 in Maryland, but moved with his parents when he was a month old and was raised in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. He moved to

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

to attend

La Roche University La Roche University is a private Catholic university in McCandless, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1963 by the Sisters of Divine Providence and now sits on an campus within the Diocese of Pittsburgh. History La Roche Univers ...

, where he received a BA in Professional Writing. He attended

North Carolina State University North Carolina State University (NC State, North Carolina State, NC State University, or NCSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1887 and p ...

for graduate school, where he studied under

John Kessel John Joseph Vincent Kessel (born September 24, 1950) is an American author of science fiction and fantasy. He is a prolific short story writer, and the author of four solo novels, '' Good News From Outer Space'' (1989), ''Corrupting Dr. Nice'' ...

and

Wilton Barnhardt Wilton Barnhardt (born 1960) is a former reporter for ''Sports Illustrated'' and is the author of ''Emma Who Saved My Life'' (1989), ''Gospel'' (1993), ''Show World'' (1999), and ''Lookaway, Lookaway'' (2013). Barnhardt took his B.A. at Michigan ...

. He received an MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction) and an MA in English (Linguistics). He is a graduate of the 2016

Clarion West Writers Workshop Clarion West is a non-profit organization best known for their intensive six-week workshop for writers preparing for professional careers in speculative fiction. The Six-Week Workshop is a space for writing short stories and learning how to worksho ...

Works

Turnbull's short stories have appeared in '' Asimov’s Science Fiction,

Lightspeed Magazine ''Lightspeed'' is an American online fantasy and science fiction magazine edited and published by John Joseph Adams. The first issue was published in June 2010 and it has maintained a regular monthly schedule since. The magazine published four o ...

,'' and ''

Nightmare Magazine John Joseph Adams (born July 31, 1976) is an American science fiction and fantasy editor, critic, and publisher. Career Editor Adams worked as Assistant Editor at ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' from May 2001 to December 2009. In ...

.'' Two of his short stories have been read by

LeVar Burton Levardis Robert Martyn Burton Jr. (born February 16, 1957) is an American actor, director, and television host. He played Geordi La Forge in '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' (1987–1994), Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries ''Roots'' (1977 ...

on the ''

LeVar Burton Reads ''LeVar Burton Reads'' was a podcast hosted by LeVar Burton, where he read a piece of short fiction and shared his thoughts on it. Following its launch in 2017, it won numerous awards and received favorable reviews. Description Burton is well ...

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

. His short story "Loneliness Is in Your Blood" was selected for ''

The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy ''The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy'' is an annual anthology of North American science fiction and fantasy stories. Background It was first published by Houghton Mifflin through the year 2017. It has been part of ''The Best Americ ...

'' 2018 anthology, and his short story "Jump" was selected for ''The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy'' 2019 anthology. His debut novel, ''The Lesson'', was nominated for multiple awards and won the Neukom Institute Literary Arts Award for speculative fiction in the "debut" category. His second novel, ''No Gods, No Monsters,'' was listed as one of the best books of 2021 by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'',

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

Audible Audible may refer to: * Audible (service), an online audiobook store * Audible (American football), a tactic used by quarterbacks * ''Audible'' (film), a short documentary film featuring a deaf high school football player * Audible finish or ru ...

, the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

Library Journal ''Library Journal'' is an American trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey. It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional prac ...

, and ''

Tor.com ''Reactor'', formerly ''Tor.com'', is an online science fiction and fantasy magazine published by Tor Books, a division of Macmillan Publishers. The magazine publishes articles, reviews, original short fiction, re-reads and commentary on specul ...

''. His third novel, ''We Are the Crisis'', was listed as one of the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of 2023 and one of the Best Fiction Books of 2023 by Kirkus Reviews. Many of his stories take place (at least partially) in his native U.S. Virgin Islands. His writing often addresses sociopolitical topics like

colonialism Colonialism is the control of another territory, natural resources and people by a foreign group. Colonizers control the political and tribal power of the colonised territory. While frequently an Imperialism, imperialist project, colonialism c ...

and

post-colonialism Postcolonialism (also post-colonial theory) is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic consequences of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and thei ...

, marginalized communities,

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

, police violence, and

collective ownership Collective ownership is the ownership of private property by all members of a group. The breadth or narrowness of the group can range from a whole society to a set of coworkers in a particular enterprise (such as one collective farm). In the la ...

. He credits

Ursula Le Guin Ursula Kroeber Le Guin ( ; Kroeber; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author. She is best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the ''Earthsea'' fantas ...

as influential to his writing along with

Octavia Butler Octavia Estelle Butler (June 22, 1947 – February 24, 2006) was an American science fiction writer who won several awards for her works, including Hugo, Locus, and Nebula awards. In 1995, Butler became the first science-fiction writer to recei ...

Ted Chiang Ted Chiang (; pinyin: ''Jiāng Fēngnán''; born 1967) is an American science fiction writer. His work has won four Nebula Award, Nebula awards, four Hugo Award, Hugo awards, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and six Locus Award, ...

N. K. Jemisin Nora Keita Jemisin (born September 19, 1972) is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. Her fiction includes a wide range of themes, notably cultural conflict and oppression. Her debut novel, '' The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms'', and the ...

Alice Munro Alice Ann Munro ( ; ; 10 July 1931 – 13 May 2024) was a Canadian short story writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. Her work tends to move forward and backward in time, with integrated short story cycles. Munro's ...

, and

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to a ...

Bibliography

Novels

* ''The Lesson.'' (2019). Blackstone Publishing. .

Convergence Saga

* ''No Gods, No Monsters.'' (2021). Blackstone Publishing. . * ''We Are the Crisis.'' (2023). Blackstone Publishing. Formation Saga * ''Transmentation Transience: Or, an Accession to the People's Council for Nine Thousand Worlds,'' by Darkly Lem''.'' (2025). Blackstone Publishing.

Short fiction

*
Loneliness Is in Your Blood
. (2017). ''Nightmare Magazine.'' *
A Third of the Stars of Heaven
. (2017). ''Lightspeed Magazine''. * �
Other Worlds and This One
��. (2018). ''Lightspeed Magazine''. ** Originally printed (2017) in ''Asimov’s Science Fiction'' * “When the Rains Come Back.” (2017). ''Lightspeed Magazine.'' ** -- (2019). Featured on ''We Will Remember Freedom'' podcast. *
They Built a Wall
. (2018). Grassroots Economic Organizing. *
Jump
. (2019). ''Lightspeed Magazine.'' ** -- (2019). Featured on ''

'' podcast. *
Monsters Come Howling in their Season
. (2019). ''

The Verge ''The Verge'' is an American Technology journalism, technology news website headquarters, headquartered in Lower Manhattan, New York City and operated by Vox Media. The website publishes news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, cons ...

.'' *
All the Hidden Places
. (2019). ''Nightmare Magazine.'' * "The Letters Triptych". (2020). In ''The Dystopia Triptych: Ignorance is Strength, Vol 1.'' Broach Reach Publishing and Adamant Press. . * "Mediation." (2020). In ''Entanglements: Tomorrow's Lovers, Families, and Friends.'' MIT Press. . *
Shock of Birth
. (2021). ''Lightspeed Magazine''. ** -- (2021). Featured on ''LeVar Burton Reads'' podcast. ** -- (2023). In ''Many Worlds, or The Simulacra.'' Radix Media. * "Killmonger Rising". (2021). In ''Black Panther: Tales of Wakanda.''

Titan Books Titan Publishing Group is the publishing division of the British entertainment company Titan Entertainment, which was established as Titan Books in 1981. The books division has two main areas of publishing: film and television tie-ins and cine ...

. . * �
Break the Skin If You Have To
��, with Emma Osborne and Jess Essey (2022). ''Nightmare Magazine.'' * “There, She Didn’t Need Air to Fill Her Lungs” ''Lost Worlds & Mythological Kingdoms.'' Grim Oak Press. *
Notes on the Forum of the Simulacra
" (2023). In ''Many Worlds, or The Simulacra.'' Radix Media. * “Wandering Devil”. (2023). ''Out There Screaming: An Anthology of Black Horror.''

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House Limited is a British-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, with the merger of Penguin Books and Random House. Penguin Books was or ...

. * �
A Tech Mage Comes to Visit
��. (2023). ''Sunday Morning Transport''.

Edited works

* ''Many Worlds, or The Simulacra'', with Josh Eure (2023). Radix Media.

Awards

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Turnbull, Cadwell Living people United States Virgin Islands writers Postcolonial literature 1987 births American LGBTQ writers LGBTQ people from Maryland American science fiction writers American speculative fiction writers American fantasy writers North Carolina State University alumni Writers from Chevy Chase, Maryland Lambda Literary Award winners