Canadian · b. 1978
Esi Edugyan writes historical fiction that places Black characters at the center of periods that typically erase them. The Canadian novelist's "Half Blood Blues" followed a jazz prodigy in Nazi-occupied Paris, while "Washington Black" traced an enslaved boy's transformation into a naturalist across the nineteenth-century Atlantic world. Both novels were shortlisted for the Booker Prize, with "Washington Black" earning a 2018 nomination. Edugyan combines meticulous research with propulsive storytelling, creating adventure narratives that double as meditations on race, art, and freedom.