When MacArthur called, N. K. Jemisin figured it was spam. It took a text from someone at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to make her realize that she needed to answer the phone. In 2016, she became the first African-American woman to win a Hugo Award for best novel (for the first book in her Broken Earth trilogy). Then, in 2018, she became the first author to win a Hugo for every novel in a trilogy. But this award, with its no-strings-attached grant of $625,000, has the potential to fundamentally change her writing process.

Source: New York Times October 06, 2020 15:56 UTC