Quote by Roseanne A. Brown: “To create is to insist: I was here.”

Making something — art, music, a story, anything — is a way of asserting your existence in the world. Creation is not just about beauty or entertainment; it is a mark, a proof of presence. It says: I existed, I mattered, this came from me.

Brown made this observation during interviews surrounding her 2021 debut, a period when conversations about representation in speculative fiction and publishing diversity were especially prominent. The fantasy genre was being expanded by a new generation of writers drawing from non-European mythologies.

Ghanaian-American fantasy author whose 2021 debut novel A Song of Wraiths and Ruin became a New York Times bestseller and is inspired by West African mythology. She has become a prominent voice for diversity in speculative fiction publishing.