Cadwell Turnbull

Turnbull was born on August 12, 1987 in Maryland however moved with his parents when he was a month old[3] and raised in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. He moved to Pittsburgh to attend La Roche University,[3][4] where he received a BA in Professional Writing.[5] He attended North Carolina State University for graduate school,[6] where he studied under John Kessel and Wilton Barnhardt.[3] He received an MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction) and an MA in English (Linguistics).[7] He is a graduate of the 2016 Clarion West Writers Workshop.[8]

Turnbull's short stories have appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Lightspeed Magazine, and Nightmare Magazine. Two of his short stories have been read by LeVar Burton on the LeVar Burton Reads podcast.[9][10] His short story "Loneliness Is in Your Blood" was selected for The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018 anthology,[11] and his short story "Jump" was selected for The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 anthology.[12]

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.[13][14] His second novel, No Gods, No Monsters, was listed as one of the best books of 2021 by The New York Times,[15] NPR,[16] Audible,[17] the New York Public Library,[18] Kirkus,[19] Library Journal,[20] and Tor.com.[21]

Many of his stories take place (at least partially) in his native U.S. Virgin Islands. His writing often addresses sociopolitical topics like colonialism and post-colonialism,[22][23] marginalized communities,[24][25] climate change,[26][27] police violence,[28][29] and collective ownership.[27] He credits Ursula Le Guin as influential to his writing[30] along with Octavia Butler, Ted Chiang, N. K. Jemisin, Alice Munro, and George Orwell.[31]

• Official website
• Sorg, Arley (October 2021). "Breaking Out of the Box: A Conversation with Cadwell Turnbull". Clarkesworld: Science Fiction & Fantasy Magazine. No. 181.