Meet the first Nigerian author to win prestigious Hugo Award

Nnedi Okorafor, has won the 2016 Hugo Award in the Best Novella category for her book Binti, making her the first Nigerianto win the award.

Announced over the weekend at the 74th World Science Fiction Convention, held in Kansas City, Binti is Okorafor's first work set in space, about a young woman who becomes the first in her tribe to attend a prestigious intergalactic university.

Gary K. Wolfe wrote of her work: "Okorafor's genius has been to find the iconic images and traditions of African culture, mostly Nigerian and often Igbo, and tweak them just enough to become a seamless part of her vocabulary of fantastika."

Okorafor a literature and creative writing professor at the University of Buffalo is not new to winning awards. Her science fiction novel Lagoon was a finalist for a British Science Fiction Association Award (Best Novel) and a Red Tentacle Award (Best Novel) and a Tiptree Honor Book.

Her science fiction novella Binti won both the 2016 Nebula Award and 2016 Hugo Award for best novella, and was a finalist for a British Science Fiction Association Award (Best Short) and BooktubeSFF Award (Best Short Work).

The second installment of the Binti novella will be released in January 2017.

The Hugo Awards are handed out each year for excellence in science fiction and fantasy writing.

The complete list of the 2016 Hugo Award winners is below:

Novel: "The Fifth Season" by N.K. Jemisin

Novella: "Binti" by Nnedi Okorafor

Novelette: "Folding Beijing" by Hao Jingfang, translated by Ken Liu

Short story: "Cat Pictures Please" by Naomi Kritzer

Graphic story: "The Sandman: Overture" by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by J.H. Williams III

The John W. Campbell Award for new writer: Andy Weir

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