Karen Lord


Karen Lord is a Barbadian writer of speculative fiction. Her first novel, Redemption in Indigo, retells the story "Ansige Karamba the Glutton" from Senegalese folklore and her second novel, The Best of All Possible Worlds, is an example of social science fiction. Lord also writes on the sociology of religion.

Biography

Karen Lord was born in Barbados. She attended Queen's College in Bridgetown, and earned a science degree from the University of Toronto and a PhD in the sociology of religion from Bangor University.

Novels

Lord's debut novel Redemption in Indigo was originally published in the United States in 2010 by Small Beer Press, and was republished in England in 2012 by Quercus under its Jo Fletcher Books imprint for SF, fantasy, and horror titles. The New York Times called it "a clever, exuberant mix of Caribbean and Senegalese influences that balances riotously funny set pieces... with serious drama", the Caribbean Review of Books commented that the novel is "very sprightly from start to finish, with vivid descriptions, memorable heroes and villains, brisk pacing", and it was summed up by Booklist as "one of those literary works of which it can be said that not a word should be changed".
The Best of All Possible Worlds was published by Jo Fletcher Books/Quercus and Del Rey Books/Random House in 2013. One reviewer called it "a thoughtful and emotional novel... one of the most enjoyable books I've recently read", while Nalo Hopkinson wrote in the Los Angeles Review of Books: "The Best of All Possible Worlds put me in mind of Junot Díaz’s brilliant novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Not stylistically: while Oscar Wao is an experimental pelau of modes served up in Díaz’s distinctly Dominicano and in-your-face voice, The Best of All Possible Worlds is a beautiful shape-shifter."
The Galaxy Game, which was released on 6 January 2015 from Del Rey Books/Random House, was described in an early review as "a satisfying exercise in being off-balance, a visceral lesson in how to fall forward and catch yourself in an amazing new place." Publishers Weekly referred to it as a "subtle, cerebral novel", while The Guardians reviewer wrote that "the novel is a leisurely exploration of multiple societies, power-politics and race relations, in which discursive plot lines deceive before cohering in a satisfying finale."
The Blue, Beautiful World was published in August 2023 by Del Rey in the US and Gollancz in the UK. It was described in The Guardian as a "complex, engaging novel with a warmth and intelligence reminiscent of Ursula K Le Guin." The Big Issue characterised it as "infused with a kind of forward-thinking empathy and respect" and noted that the novel "has a lot to say about post-colonialism, though plays with those ideas in a subtle and open-hearted fashion."

Short stories

Lord's short story "Hiraeth: A Tragedy in Four Acts" was published in the anthology Reach for Infinity, edited by Jonathan Strahan, and she contributed the short story "Cities of the Sun" to Margaret Busby's 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa. Also in 2019, Lord wrote "The Plague Doctors" for Take us to a Better Place: Stories, produced by Melcher Media and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Awards

Redemption in Indigo won the 2008 Frank Collymore Literary Endowment Award for Best Unpublished Manuscript, the 2010 Carl Brandon Society Parallax Award, the 2011 Crawford Award, the 2011 Mythopoeic Award, and the 2012 Kitschies Golden Tentacle Award for the Best Debut Novel.
Redemption in Indigo was also nominated for the 2011 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel and for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and longlisted for the 2011 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.
The Blue, Beautiful World was longlisted for the 2024 Women's Prize for Fiction.

Novels

Redemption in Indigo. Small Beer Press, Jo Fletcher Books/Quercus, 2010., 2012.The Best of All Possible Worlds. Jo Fletcher Books, 2013..Unravelling. DAW Books, 2019.. The Blue, Beautiful World. Del Rey, 2023..
;Reprints/other editions
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As editor

New Worlds, Old Ways: Speculative Tales from the Caribbean. Peepal Tree Press, 2016;

Critical studies and reviews of Lord's work

;The Best of all Possible Worlds
;The Galaxy Game
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Interviews

  • Richard Fidler, , Conversations, ABC, Australia, 5 March 2013.
  • Gavin Grant, , BookPage, 18 January 2013.
  • , 4 November 2011
  • at the World SF Blog, 29 August 2011
  • , 3 August 2011
  • : Excerpts from an interview in Locus Magazine, 11 August 2011
  • Jeremy L. C. Jones, , Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 77, February 2013.
  • Rhiannon Brown, , ABC Radio National, 26 January 2014.
  • . Interview by Marta Fernández Campa. Caribbean Literary Heritage, 23 April 2018.