Rivers Solomon is an American author of

speculative Speculative may refer to: In arts and entertainment *Speculative art (disambiguation) *Speculative fiction, which includes elements created out of human imagination, such as the science fiction and fantasy genres ** Speculative Fiction Group, a Pe ...

and

literary fiction Literary fiction, serious fiction, high literature, or artistic literature, and sometimes just literature, encompasses fiction books and writings that are more character-driven rather than plot-driven, that examine the human condition, or that are ...

. In 2018, they received the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses' Firecracker Award in Fiction for their

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to pu ...

, '' An Unkindness of Ghosts'', and in 2020 their second novel, '' The Deep'', won the

Lambda Literary Award Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary Foundation, Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ+ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ+ literatur ...

. Their third novel, '' Sorrowland'', was published in May 2021, and won the

Otherwise Award The Otherwise Award, originally known as the James Tiptree Jr. Award, is an American annual literary prize for works of science fiction or fantasy that expand or explore one's understanding of gender. It was initiated in February 1991 by science ...

Personal life

Solomon is

non-binary Non-binary or genderqueer Gender identity, gender identities are those that are outside the male/female gender binary. Non-binary identities often fall under the transgender umbrella since non-binary people typically identify with a gende ...

and

intersex Intersex people are those born with any of several sex characteristics, including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical binar ...

and states that they use fae/faer and ''

they/them Singular ''they'', along with its inflected or derivative forms, ''them'', ''their'', ''theirs'', and ''themselves'' (also ''themself'' and ''theirself''), is a gender-neutral third-person pronoun derived from plural they. It typically occu ...

'' pronouns. This article uses ''they/them'' for consistency. They describe themself as "a dyke, an

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

, a she-beast, an exile, a shiv, a wreck, and a refugee of the

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people to the Americas. European slave ships regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Passage. Europeans est ...

." They have

attention deficit hyperactivity disorder Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity, and emotional dysregulation that are excessive and pervasive, impairing in multiple con ...

and are on the

autism spectrum Autism, also known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by differences or difficulties in social communication and interaction, a preference for predictability and routine, sensory processing d ...

. As of 2018, Solomon lives in Cambridge, UK, with their family. Originally from the United States, they received their BA in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

in California and an MFA in Fiction Writing from the

Michener Center for Writers The Michener Center for Writers is a Masters of Fine Arts program in fiction, poetry, playwriting, and screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. Bret Anthony Johnston is the current director of the program. Previously, James Magnuson ra ...

at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

. They grew up in California, Indiana, Texas, and New York. Their literary influences include

Ursula K. 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 ...

Octavia E. 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 ...

Alice Walker Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. In 1982, she became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which she was awa ...

Zora Neale Hurston Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891 – January 28, 1960) was an American writer, anthropologist, folklorist, and documentary filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-20th-century American South and published research on Hoodoo ...

Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury ( ; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, Horror fiction, horr ...

Jean Toomer Jean Toomer (born Nathan Pinchback Toomer; December 26, 1894 – March 30, 1967) was an American poet and novelist commonly associated with modernism and the Harlem Renaissance, though he actively resisted the latter association. His reputati ...

, and

Doris Lessing Doris May Lessing ( Tayler; 22 October 1919 – 17 November 2013) was a British novelist. She was born to British parents in Qajar Iran, Persia, where she lived until 1925. Her family then moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where ...

Work

Solomon's debut novel was '' An Unkindness of Ghosts'', a

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 ...

novel exploring the conjunction between

structural racism A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such as ...

and

generation ship A generation ship, generation starship or world ship, is a hypothetical type of interstellar ark starship that travels at sub- light speed. Since such a ship might require hundreds to thousands of years to reach nearby stars, the original occup ...

s. It was published in 2017 by

Akashic Books Akashic Books is a Brooklyn-based independent publisher, formed in 1997. It was started by Johnny Temple (bassist), Johnny Temple, bassist of Girls Against Boys and mid-'80s Dischord band Soulside, with the mission "to make literature more part ...

. The book was a best book of 2017 in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'',

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 ...

, ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'', ''

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 ...

'', ''

Bustle A bustle is a padded undergarment or wire frame used to add fullness, or support the drapery, at the back of women's dresses in the mid-to-late 19th century. Bustles are worn under the skirt in the back, just below the waist, to keep the skir ...

'', and others, as well as a Stonewall Honor Book,

Firecracker A firecracker (cracker, noise maker, banger) is a small explosive device primarily designed to produce a large amount of noise, especially in the form of a loud bang, usually for celebration or entertainment; any visual effect is incidental to ...

winner, and a finalist for the

Locus Locus (plural loci) is Latin for "place". It may refer to: Mathematics and science * Locus (mathematics), the set of points satisfying a particular condition, often forming a curve * Root locus analysis, a diagram visualizing the position of r ...

Lambda Lambda (; uppercase , lowercase ; , ''lám(b)da'') is the eleventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiced alveolar lateral approximant . In the system of Greek numerals, lambda has a value of 30. Lambda is derived from the Phoen ...

Tiptree Tiptree is a large village and civil parish in the English county of Essex, situated south-west of Colchester and around north-east of London. Surrounding villages include Messing, Tolleshunt Knights, Tolleshunt Major, Layer Marney, Inwor ...

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer The ''Astounding'' Award for Best New Writer (formerly the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer) is given annually to the best new writer whose first professional work of science fiction or fantasy was published within the two previous ...

, and Hurston/Wright awards.

Amal El-Mohtar Amal El-Mohtar (born 13 December 1984) is a Canadian poet and writer of speculative fiction. She is the editor of ''Goblin Fruit'' and reviews science fiction and fantasy books for the ''New York Times Book Review'' and is best known for the 2019 ...

wrote of ''An Unkindness of Ghosts'', "Reading it, I felt it carving out a vastness inside me, pouring itself into me like so many stars, and the more I read the bigger I felt, falling down a rabbit-hole of sky and wanting only to go deeper and farther with every page."

Gary K. Wolfe Gary K. Wolfe (born Gary Kent Wolfe in 1946) is an American science fiction editor, critic and biographer. He is an emeritus Professor of Humanities in Roosevelt University's Evelyn T. Stone College of Professional Studies. Life Wolfe was bo ...

opined "All this might make ''An Unkindness of Ghosts'' sound like a programmatic slavery allegory dressed in generation starship trappings, but Solomon’s evocation of this society is so sharply detailed and viscerally realized, the characters so closely observed, the individual scenes so tightly structured, that the novel achieves surprising power and occasional brilliance." Their second book, '' The Deep'' (2019,

Saga Press Gallery Publishing Group is a general interest publisher and a division of Simon & Schuster which houses the imprints Gallery Books, Pocket Books, Scout Press, Gallery 13, and Saga Press. Jen Bergstrom is the Senior Vice President and Publisher. ...

), is based on the Hugo-nominated song of the same name by the experimental

hip-hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hi ...

group

Clipping Clipping may refer to: Words * Clipping (morphology), the formation of a new word by shortening it, e.g. "ad" from "advertisement" * Clipping (phonetics), shortening the articulation of a speech sound, usually a vowel * Clipping (publications ...

, and depicts a utopian underwater society built by the water-breathing descendants of pregnant slaves thrown overboard from slave ships. ''The Deep'' won the 2020

Lambda Award Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary Foundation, Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ+ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ+ literatur ...

and was shortlisted for the

Nebula A nebula (; or nebulas) is a distinct luminescent part of interstellar medium, which can consist of ionized, neutral, or molecular hydrogen and also cosmic dust. Nebulae are often star-forming regions, such as in the Pillars of Creation in ...

, and Hugo. On October 3, 2019, it was announced that MCD Books had acquired Solomon's next book, '' Sorrowland'', which was published in May 2021. ''Sorrowland'' is described as "a genre-bending work of gothic fiction that wrestles with the tangled history of racism in America and the marginalization of society’s undesirables." In a review, Hephzidah Anderson succinctly captures the residual emotions this book evokes, writing "It’s about escape, self-acceptance and queer love. It’s about genocide and the exploitation of black bodies, self-delusion and endemic corruption, motherhood and inheritance." ''Sorrowland'' won the

for 2021; the award was presented to them during Wiscon 46, at which they were co-Guest of Honor with

Martha Wells Martha Wells (born September 1, 1964) is an American writer of speculative fiction. She has published a number of science fiction and fantasy novels, young adult novels, media tie-ins, short stories, and nonfiction essays on SF/F subjects; her n ...

, in May of 2023. Solomon's shorter work has been featured in ''

Black Warrior Review ''Black Warrior Review (BWR)'' is a non-profit American literary magazine founded in 1974 and based at the University of Alabama. It is the oldest continuously run literary journal by graduate students in the United States. Published in print bi ...

'', ''

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 ...

'', ''Guernica'', ''The'' ''Best American Short Stories'', ''

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 ...

'', ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published new works by Jack Kerouac, ...

'' and elsewhere. They collaborated with authors

Yoon Ha Lee Yoon Ha Lee (born 1979 in Houston, Texas) is an American science fiction and fantasy writer, known for his '' Machineries of Empire'' space opera novels and his short fiction. His first novel, '' Ninefox Gambit'', received the 2017 Locus Award ...

Becky Chambers Becky Chambers (born May 3, 1985) is an American science fiction writer. She is the author of the Hugo Award-winning ''Wayfarers'' series as well as novellas including '' To Be Taught, If Fortunate'' (2019) and the ''Monk & Robot'' series, which ...

, and S. L. Huang on the serial novel ''The Vela.''

Bibliography

* '' An Unkindness of Ghosts'' (2017, Akashic) * '' The Deep'' (2019,

) * '' Sorrowland'' (2021, MCD) * ''Model Home'' (2024, MCD)

References

External links

* *
Interview with Rivers Solomon
Pen America, October 24, 2019

Reception

''An Unkindness of Ghosts''

* El-Mohtar, Amal,
'Unkindness of Ghosts' Transposes the Plantation's Cruelty to the Stars
,

, October 6, 2017 * Hines, Aries
Lambda Literary
November 2, 2017
''Publishers Weekly''
August 14, 2017 * McArdle, Megan
Library Journal
September 15, 2017

''The Deep''

* Heller, Jason
'The Deep' Sings with Many Voices
, NPR, November 7, 2019
Publishers Weekly
April 15, 2019 * Brown, Alex,
Wade in the Water
, TOR, November 5, 2019

''Sorrowland''

* Anderson, Hephzibah
The Guardian
May 18, 2021 * Lore, Danny
NPR
May 14, 2021 * Jackson, Matthew
Book Page
May 2021 {{DEFAULTSORT:Solomon, Rivers 1989 births African-American novelists African-American LGBTQ people Living people Stanford University alumni Michener Center for Writers alumni 21st-century American novelists American science fiction writers Lambda Literary Award winners 21st-century African-American writers 20th-century African-American writers American non-binary writers African-American anarchists American anarchists American anarchist writers Intersex non-binary people American intersex writers American lesbian writers Autistic writers People with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder American writers with disabilities LGBTQ writers with disabilities Non-binary lesbians American intersex women Autistic LGBTQ people American autistic people Non-binary science fiction writers 21st-century anarchists