EscapePod, episode 1016, Valedictorian by N.K. Jemison, narrated by Stephanie Malia Morris, hosted by

Alastair Stewart, with audio by Summerbrooks.

Hi folks, welcome to EscapePod. I'm Alistair, your host, and this week's story is part of our

anniversary celebration look at some of the stories EscapePod has released over the last 20 years.

This one first appeared as episode 450 on June 16th, 2014, and was chosen as a flashback

Friday by Marguerite four years later on April 25, 2019. It comes to us from NK. Jermison.

N.K. Jemison is a fantasy author and 2020 MacArthur Fellow. Since beginning her professional career in the early

2000s, her short fiction and novels have been recognized with multiple Hugo, Nebula and Locus

awards. Most of her works have been optioned for television or film, and collectively her novels,

including the Broken Earth trilogy, have sold over 2 million copies. After 20 years working in higher education

as an applied counselling psychologist, she retired in 2016 to become a full-time writer,

writing instructor and public speaker. Her speculative works range widely in theme, though with

repeated motifs, resistance and oppression, loneliness and belonging, and

wouldn't it be cool if this one ridiculous thing happened?

In her spare time, she's into tabletop and video games, biking, fan fiction and urban

gardening.

She lives and writes in Brooklyn with her son and two cats. Your narrator for this week is Stephanie Malia Morris.

Stephanie is a graduate of the 2017 Clarion West Writers' Workshop,

recipient of the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship Award, and a 2019 Kimbello Fellow.

Her short fiction has appeared in Fire, Apex Magazine, Nightmare and

pseudopod. She has narrated short fiction for the Escape Artist's podcasts, Uncanny and

Beneath Cecilus Skies, and you can find her online at Stephanie Malia Morris.com. Before we get to the story,

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