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Sofia Samatar, from California, received the John W. Campbell award for Best New Science Fiction or Fantasy Writer at the World Science Fiction Convention.

Samatar was awarded this honor for her debut novel--A Stranger in Olondria, published by Small Beer Press in 2013--and her short stories that have been published in a variety of magazines and books.

A Stranger in Olondria follows Jevick, a pepper merchant's son, on his ghost-riddled adventure to the distant land of Olondria. The critically acclaimed novel was thirteen years in the making.

Samatar, an American of Somali and Swiss German Mennonite background, wrote the novel while teaching English in South Sudan.